ti'Z ■-■ '(HE DISEASES OF THE DOG. " V 



tinctly recognisable we must content ourselves with strict 

 attention to hygiene, tonics, and occasional laxatives. The* 

 alkaline carbonates are very useful in these cases, especi- 

 ally when the stomach is disordered, for in the dog there 

 is a tendency to acidity and to the condition termed py- 

 rosis, in- which the stomach is irritable, and there is 

 frequent ejection of a quantity of acid liquid through the 

 mouth. 



Vomition. — The spasmodic ejection of the contents of the 

 stomach depends either on the food being irritant, the sto- 

 mach irritable, or the nervous system deranged. It is a 

 symptom which may appear in almost any disease to which 

 the dog is liable, so extensive are the reflex influences by 

 which disorders of other parts derange the stomach. Be- 

 cause this process can be brought about in the dog by- 

 very many medicines, and the effect of emetics is one ap- 

 preciable even to the most ignorant observer, this class of 

 remedies has been much abused by those who have the 

 care of sick dogs, emetics being given for every disease. 

 They exhaust the patient and so indirectly exert a sedative 

 influence, and they sometimes free the stomach of an irri- 

 tant which is causing disease, but their use in canine 

 medicine requires care and judgment. 



Persistent Vomition is generally indicative of gastric 

 disorder, but in fits of all kinds one of the earliest sym- 

 ptoms is a clearance of the stomach in this way. The mat- 

 ter ejected varies in different cases, the ordinary stomach 

 contents being sometimes mixed with blood or a large quan- 

 tity of bile. The inverse peristalsis occasionally extends 

 to the bowels, and the pylorus becomes relaxed, which will 

 account for the presence of bile in the vomits. The dog 

 often eats grass as an emetic when he feels " sickness of 

 the stomach." A very extreme case of vomition is re- 

 corded in the ' Abstract of Proceedings of the Veterinary 

 Medical Association London, for 1838-9/ where the stomach 

 was intussuscepted into the posterior end of the oesophagus ; 

 the whole of the gullet was much enlarged. In cases of 

 persistant vomition. small doses of prussic acid or morphia 

 and alkaline effervescent drinks must be tried. 



