DISEASES OP THE BLOOD. 71 



Anemia in canine patients sometimes assumes a marked 

 character and can be only imperfectly explained. Thus, 

 dogs kept in dark places, ill cared for, badly fed, and 

 totally deprived of exercise, undergo nutritive defects in 

 almost every tissue of the body such as are particularly 

 visible to the observer in the cornea, which becomes 

 opaque in spots and ulcerated, as in rabies occasionally 

 and in distemper not rarely. Haemorrhage or chronic 

 disease may give rise to a similar state, as denoted by 

 extreme weakness, pallor of visible membranes and skin, 

 bleeding imperfectly when cut, coldness of the mouth and 

 extremities, and, finally, paralysis and death. Autopsy 

 shows a general bloodlessness of the tissues and a ten- 

 dency to serous effusion, such as may have set in, under the 

 form of anasarca of perinasum, intermaxillary space, or 

 limbs, before death. The animal, weakened by disorder or 

 maltreatment, may be subject to fits before death occurs. 

 Tonics, stimulants, good nutritive food, and strict hygiene, 

 with determination and removal of the cause operative ii» 

 the special case, is the line of treatment suited to anasmia 

 Where it is associated with a liability to fatty degenera- 

 tions of organs, as denoted by weak heart with a tendency 

 to palpitation, the effects of small doses of chlorate of 

 potash long continued may be tried. 



Plethora, although common in dogs, is not liable 

 to give rise to pathological states primarily, although 

 secondarily it causes considerable disorder of almost every 

 part of the body. Mayhew alludes to its occurrence, in 

 the form called " Foul," among sporting dogs which are, 

 in spite of close confinement and cessation of work at the 

 end of the season, still highly fed as though in full work. 

 Under such mismanagement the dog soon suffers from a 

 very serious complication of disorders, each of which 

 requires its special treatment. 



Fever in the dog is almost always sympathetic or one 

 of the symptoms of blood disease, but there are, neverthe- 

 less, cases in which while fever runs high no local disorder 

 can be detected. Malarious influences undoubtedly affect 

 the dog, inducing recurrent fever with absence of appre- 



