Causes: burns; spiced food; bones; sepsis; ferments; pin caterpillar;
dental and gastric troubles. Symptoms: careful prehension and
mastication; congestion; swelling; eruption; erosion; furred tongue;
stringy salivation; fœtor; swelling of lips, cheeks, intermaxillary
space, and pharynx. Treatment: demulcent foods; antiseptics;
derivatives; tonics; care of teeth and gums.
_Causes._ Hot food is a common cause in hungry dogs. Spiced food in
house dogs fed scraps from the table tend to congestion of mouth and
stomach alike. Irritation through wounds with bones, especially in old
dogs with failing teeth, and in exceptional cases the impaction of a
bone between the right and left upper molars are additional causes.
Putrid meat must also be recognized as a factor, the septic microbes
seizing upon the wounds and spreading from this as an infecting centre.
Lactic acid and other irritant products developed through fermentation
of particles of food retained about the gums and cheeks soften the
epithelium and irritate the sub-epithelial tissue, causing congestion.
Megnin draws attention to the fact that the pin caterpillar (bombyx
pinivora) found on the stalks of couch grass (Triticum repeus) produces
buccal irritation when chewed and swallowed to induce vomiting. As in
other animals more or less buccal congestion attends on gastric
congestion and inflammation. Dental troubles are often sufficient
causes.
_Symptoms._ The animal becomes dainty with regard to his food, picking
up the smaller or softer pieces and rejecting the larger or harder.
Mastication is painful and selection is made of moist or soft articles
which can be swallowed without chewing or insalivation. The mouth is red
and hot, and at times the mucous membrane eroded, or blistered, the
lesions concentrating especially on the gums and around the borders of
the tongue. The dorsum of the tongue is furred, whitish, yellowish or
brownish. Saliva collects in the mouth and escapes in filmy strings from
its commissures, and the odor of the mouth becomes increasingly foul.
Swelling of the lips, cheeks or intermaxillary space marks the worst
cases.
_Treatment._ Withdraw all irritant and offensive aliments. Give soups,
mushes, scraped or pounded lean meat in small quantities, washing out
the mouth after each meal with a 20 per cent. solution of permanganate
of potash or borax or a two per cent. solution of carbolic acid. Cadeac
advises against chlorate of potash on account of its known tendency to
bring about hæmoglobinæmia in dogs. A laxative and bitters may be called
for in case of gastritis or indigestion, and any morbid condition of the
teeth must be attended to. Decayed teeth may be removed. Tartar
especially must be cleaned off by the aid of a small wooden or even a
steel spud and a hard brush with chalk will be useful. A weak solution
of hydrochloric acid is usually employed to loosen the tartar, but this
is injurious to the structure of the teeth and had best be avoided if
possible. Tincture of myrrh is especially valuable both as a gum-tonic
and as a deodorant and antiseptic. This may be rubbed on the irritated
gums as often as the mouth is washed.