Causes: faulty feeding, close confinement, youth, distemper,
over-exertion, meat diet, chills when heated and fatigued, ferments,
bacteria, debility, ill health. Lesions: congested, softened,
ulcerated, thickened mucosa, mucopurulent exudate, swollen intestinal
and mesenteric glands, hyperplasia, polypi, follicular degeneration.
Symptoms: dullness, segregation, inappetence, fever, arched back,
abdominal rumbling, tenderness, retraction, constipation, diarrhœa,
colics, vomiting, tenesmus, swollen red excoriated anus, icterus,
weakness, debility, paralysis, if chronic, unthrifty skin, with
eruptions, pallor, foul breath, tongue and gums, emaciation. Course:
may recover in vigorous, or run down and die in old, young, weak,
debilitated or ill. Relapses. Treatment: dietetic, laxative, in
icteric, calomel, manna, enemata, warm bath, synapism, antiseptics,
bismuth, sodium salicylate, in diarrhœa, bitters, astringent
antiseptic tonics. Demulcents.
_Causes._ The dog is susceptible because of its varied, irregular,
stimulating, often excessive diet, and its close confinement and lack of
wholesome outdoor exercise. The conditions which predispose to or excite
gastritis tend equally to enteritis. Youth, canine distemper,
over-exertion, an exclusive meat diet, and chills from plunging into
cold water when exhausted with hunting are to be specially noted.
Spoiled meats charged with the germs of infection, or with putrefactive
bacteria and their toxic products are common causes. Then any old
standing disease or other cause of general debility will predispose to
the attacks of such otherwise harmless germs. The irritation caused by
intestinal parasites is an occasional factor.
_Lesions._ The mucosa is congested, ramified, spotted or dark and slaty;
it together with the submucosa is swollen and infiltrated, and with
points of ecchymosis, extravasation or even ulceration. The surface has
a thick layer of mucopurulent matter. The solitary glands are swollen
and charged with small lymphoid or pus cells and have a congested
areola. The mesenteric glands are congested and the liver usually
congested softened or mottled. In chronic cases there may be
hyperplasia, polypi, cystoid degeneration of the follicles, etc.
_Symptoms._ There may be dullness, drowsiness, a seeking of seclusion,
inappetence, hyperthermia (102 to 104°), ardent thirst, arched back,
abdominal rumbling, tympany or tucked up tender abdomen, and a very
temporary constipation, early giving place to diarrhœa. If however the
inflammation is confined to the rectum and floating colon, constipation
may persist. There are intermittent colics, frequent lying down and
rising, or rising on the hind limbs only and when the belly is handled
the patient may whine. The mouth is sour, hot, clammy, and red, and the
dorsum of the tongue furred. The nose is dry and burning, the eyes
congested, sunken and watery.
The fæces may be early soft or liquid and bilious, then as the
defecations increase they pass through shades of gray to black or
reddish black from the admixture of effused blood, and show bubbles and
fœtor. Vomiting is usually an early symptom (septic matters in septic
poisoning) and as the disease advances there is much fruitless straining
and even protrusion of the congested and excoriated rectum. Icterus is
common from infection of the gall ducts or the absorption of toxins into
the portal vein. Weakness and debility amounting even to paresis may
appear in the end.
In chronic cases there are emaciation and debility, unthrifty hair and
skin, cutaneous eruptions, pallor of the mucosæ, fœtid breath, foul
teeth and tongue, with irregular appetite, alternate constipation and
diarrhœa, and, in case of implication of the duodenum and liver,
icterus. The abdomen is retracted and tender.
_Course._ In strong vigorous dogs a spontaneous recovery is the rule,
which is greatly favored by elimination through vomiting and purging.
Fatal cases occur in puppies, in old, debilitated animals, or in such as
have disease of the heart, lungs, or liver. Relapses are common and
dangerous.
_Treatment._ Mild cases may respond to a purely dietetic treatment.
Boiled milk, hot soup, or well cooked mush, and biscuit, are indicated,
and with ½ oz. castor oil and 5 to 10 drops laudanum may suffice for
treatment.
In the more severe cases, with some icterus, calomel 1 to 2 grs. with
the oil, or with manna 5 drs. may be followed by emollient or soapy
injections, and a warm bath or fomentations, the body being afterward
carefully dried and warmly covered. This may be followed by a mustard
poultice.
The usual antiseptics (salol 10 grs., naphthol 20 grs., creoline 20
drops, creosote 7 drops, or naphthaline 20 grs.) may be given with the
laxative and should be given by both mouth and anus several times daily,
in combination with nitrate of bismuth. In case of icterus give a
mixture of calomel 5 grs., chalk 60 grs., in doses of three to five
grains three or four times a day. Or salicylate of soda (10 grs.) may be
given at the same intervals.
Quinia sulphate 5 grs., nux vomica 1 gr., tannic acid 1 gr., or silver
nitrate ½ to 1 gr., or iron chloride 3 to 5 grs., may be employed when
the bowels are much relaxed. Injections of well boiled rice or starch,
or of gum or slippery elm, may be employed as adjuvants.