322 Veterinary Medicine. 



the dog, in company with U. Trigonocephala, producing a per- 

 nicious and fatal anaemia with other acute symptoms. It attains 

 its most destructive prevalence in dogs kept in packs, and this is 

 known 2A Pernicious Ancsmia. Uncinariasis, ox Bleeding from the 

 Nose of packs of hounds. 



UNCINARIOSIS OF PACES OF DOGS. BLEEDING AT THE NOSE. 



Causes. The e.ssential cause of this disease is the presence in 

 the small intestine of the uncinaria in large numbers. Accessory 

 conditions, however, contribute much to its prevalence. Its 

 notorious extension in packs or large kennels is, the same as in 

 all verminous epizootics, the result of the bringing together of the 

 parasite and large numbers of the hosts on which it preys. 

 Every host can harbor an indefinite number of worms, and every 

 female worm can produce, in short order, thousands more. But 

 the collection in private packs is not an essential condition, all 

 that is required is the accumulation in a given locality of great 

 numbers even of private dogs. Stiles assures us that uncinaria 

 are exceedingly common in the numerous dogs of Washington, 

 D. C, and that in some districts 25 to 40 per cent, of the pups 

 die from their invasion. 



An important factor is the presence of water. The young 

 embryos and immature worms live in water (see under U. Cernua) 

 and it is by taking the water that the dogs take in the parasite. 

 A wet kennel or run, a damp locality, the presence of pools into 

 which the drainage from kennels or defecations runs, or of slug- 

 gish streams is, therefore, strongly conducive to the propagation 

 and encrease of the worm. In kennels, the contamination of the 

 drinking troughs or dishes, by infested members of the pack, 

 ensures a speedy and general diffusion of the helminth and the 

 consequent epizootic. 



Symptoms. These vary with the number of worms ingested as 

 they cannot develop from the egg to maturity in the intestine of 

 the dog. When badly infested there is rapidly advancing debility 

 and emaciation, a loss of spirit and energy, an inability to endure 

 fatigue, an indifference to hunting, a languid sunken eye, some 

 pallor of eyes and mouth, a dry unthrifty coat, dry skin with 

 shedding of scurf or dandruff, the appearance of red erythematous 

 patches about the stifles or inside the thighs or elbows, a dry. 



