Causes, damp kennels, cold and damp after hunting, pampering and
exposure, distemper. Symptoms, fever, cough hard, later soft,
discharge watery, glairy, purulent. In capillary bronchitis cough more
paroxysmal, painful and attended with vomiting. Disturbance of
breathing, pulse, temperature. Fatality in different breeds.
Treatment, laxative, expectorants, diuretics, heart tonic, calmative,
water vapor, chest jacket, stimulant expectorants, stimulants, tonics.
Diet.
This is common and severe. Hounds kept in damp kennels, much exposed to
cold and damp after being heated in hunting, or subjected to frequent
and sudden alternations of temperature are specially liable. Pampered
pets kept in warm rooms, overfed and having little open air exercise,
are equally subject to its attacks. It is an usual form in which
distemper is manifested.
_Symptoms._ There is roughness of the coat or shivering and a small,
hard cough often repeated. If confined to the bronchi the cough soon
becomes loose, a free discharge sets in, and with care recovery may be
secured in five or six days.
If the smaller bronchial tubes are involved the symptoms are more
intense and persistent. The temperature may reach 104° or 105°. To the
same early symptoms succeed, a painful cough occurring in paroxysms and
sometimes followed by vomiting of a glairy mucus. There is running from
the eyes and nose, and reddening of thin membranes. The creature stands
with his elbows turned out, his flanks heaving and his heart beating
rapidly and tumultuously. In the worst cases when the inflammation has
been propagated to the smallest bronchial tubes constituting _capillary
bronchitis_, these symptoms are seen in their most aggravated type and
the subject often dies of suffocation, or by implication of the lung
tissue. Percussion and auscultation are even more applicable than in the
larger animals, showing the clear resonance, of the lung tissue, the
tubal murmur in the early stages and the mucous rattle in the later
ones. In the _capillary form_ a distinct crepitation is heard like that
of pneumonia. Bronchitis proves most fatal to the higher bred dogs, such
as King Charles spaniels, Italian greyhounds, and English terriers, and
according to St. Cyr small dogs suffer more severely than large ones.
_Treatment._ If the bowels are costive a tablespoonful of castor oil
should be given, followed up by nauseating expectorants and diuretics
(tartar emetic two grains, nitrate of potass one drachm, and sugar one
drachm, mix thoroughly, divide into twelve powders and shake one on the
tongue thrice daily). If the cough is very troublesome two grains of
powdered digitalis may be added to each dose, or after the nasal
discharge has been freely established two to four grains of opium among
the tartar. The opiates are of great value in controlling the paroxysms
of coughing and the propagation of the disease to the smallest
ramifications of the air passages, but as they check secretion they must
be used with caution until a free discharge has been established. In the
early stages bromides, hyoscyannes or digitalis may be preferred.
Muriate or carbonate of ammonia, syrup of Tolu, senega, or gnaiac may
follow.
Inhalations of water vapor, the maintenance of an equable temperature,
and the moist chest jacket, followed by mustard poultices to the throat
and chest are not to be neglected. The diet should be simple, oatmeal or
Indian corn pudding with milk, soups and the like may be allowed, but as
a rule butcher meat is to be withheld. If the patient has previously fed
entirely on the latter it should now be given in very limited amount
only, and qualified by an admixture of farinaceous diet.
In some cases the prostration becomes so great that the patient must be
supported by tonics and stimulants (a teaspoonful each of sweet spirits
of nitre and tincture of gentian, or a teaspoonful of port wine repeated
twice daily).
In case of persistent discharge, iron, liquor arsenicalis, the same
strength as Fowler’s solution, or cod-liver oil may be used.