CHRONIC BRONCHITIS IN THE DOG. 



Causes. Chronic bronchitis is usually seen in old age in fat, 

 pampered dogs, obese, and subject at the same time to chronic 

 eczema. It has been supposed therefore that the morbid pro- 

 ducts absorbed from the diseased skin produce irritation of the 

 bronchial mucosa while being eliminated by that channel. 

 Again the intimate nervous sympathy between the skin and its 

 internal prolongation — the mucosa — has been adduced as the 

 cause of the coincidence, just as disorders of the gastro-intestinal 

 mucosa usually lead to cutaneous eruptions. We must not, 

 however, forget a third condition, namely, the plethoric condi- 

 tion of the pampered pet, the common disorder of liver, stomach, 

 intestines and kidneys, and the loading of the blood with waste 

 products of metabolic changes, which should have been elimin- 

 ated, and the morbid products of disordered digestion, hepatiza- 

 tion, and sanguification, which act injuriously on the skin and 

 the bronchial mucosa alike. 



As in other animals obstructions to the return of venous blood 

 from the lungs, determine chronic congestions of the bronchial 

 mucosa, hence valvular diseases or insufficiency, of the heart ; 

 pericarditis ; lymphadenoma, tubercle, or other swelling of the 

 bronchial glands become efficient causes. 



Symptoms. The symptoms vary according to the dryness, or 

 secretion from the mucosa. In the first form the cough is fre- 

 quent and paroxysmal, but husky and dry. In the second it is 

 mucous, soft, gurgling accompanied by more or less muco-puru- 

 lent expectoration and not infrequently with vomiting. The dis- 

 charge is sometimes foetid and may block the nasal passages, or 

 agglutinate the margins of the nostrils. 



The physical symptoms are like those met with in acute bron- 

 chitis. Fever is usually absent though a slight rise of temper- 

 ature may be present at intervals. 



The disease may last for years, becoming aggravated in winter 

 and improving with genial summer weather. In the fat, pam- 

 pered old dog, the disease is usually replaced in a measure by the 



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