30
th.
Slowly amending; the whining has ceased, and the animal seldom scratches. Continue the lotion, alteratives, and purgatives.
10
th Oct.
— Slowly improving. Continue the treatment.
17
th.
One ear well, the other nearly so.
24
th.
Both ears were apparently well. Omit the lotion.
28
th.
One ear was again ulcerated. Applied the
aerugo aeris
.
31
st.
This has been too stimulating, and the ulceration is almost as great as at first. Return to the
ung. sambuci
and
cerusa acetata
.
From this time to the 24th February, 1833, we continued occasionally taking out the seton, but returning to it every two or three days; applying the canker lotion until we were driven from it, mixing with it variable quantities of
tinctura opii
, having recourse to mercurial ointment, and trying a solution of the sulphate of copper. With two or three applications we could keep the disease at bay; but with none could we fairly remove the evil. The sulphate of zinc, the acetate of lead, decoctions of oak bark, a very mild injection of the nitrate of silver, — all would do good at times; but at other times we were set at complete defiance.
Another gentleman brought his dog about the same time. This was also a Newfoundland dog. He had always been subject to mangy eruptions, and had now mange in the feet, the inside of the ear covered with scaly eruptions, the skin red underneath, considerable thickening of the ear, and a slight discharge from its base. A seton was inserted and a physic-ball given every second day. The canker lotion had little good effect. Some calamine ointment, with a small portion of calomel, was then had recourse to.
In ten days the dog had ceased to scratch himself or shake his head, and the ear was clean and cool. The seton was removed; but the animal being confined, a little redness again appeared in the ear, which the lotion soon removed.
At the expiration of a month he was dismissed apparently cured; but he afterwards had a return of his old mangy complaints, which bade defiance to every mode of treatment.
Herr
Maassen, V. S., Wümemburg, has lately introduced, and with much success, the use of creosote for the cure of canker in the ear.
The first experiment was on a setter with canker in his ear. The owner of the dog had ordered it to be hanged, as all remedies had failed in producing a cure. Herr Maassen prescribed
creosoti 3ss. et spirit, vini rectificat. 3ij
. This mixture was applied once in every day to the diseased part. In a few weeks the dog was completely cured, and has since had no return of the complaint. In a terrier, and also in three spaniels, the effect of this application was equally satisfactory. In some cases, where the disease showed itself in a less degree, the creosote was dissolved in water, instead of spirit of wine. It is always necessary to take away the collar while the dog is under treatment, in order that the flap of the ear may not be injured by striking against it.
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(By F. J. J. Rigot.)
Productions of this kind, which he had the opportunity of observing only once, are sometimes united in masses, and completely close the auditive canal. The surface is granulated and black, and there escapes from it an unctuous fetid discharge. On both sides the animal is exceedingly susceptible of pain, and the excrescences bleed if the slightest pressure is brought to bear upon them.
He thought it right to cut away these excrescences bodily, which he found to be composed of a strong dense tissue, permitting much blood to escape through an innumerable quantity of vascular openings. They were reproduced with extreme promptitude after they had been cut off or cauterized. Some of them appeared no more after being destroyed by the nitrate of mercury.
Sometimes, however, twenty-four hours after a simple incision, not followed by cauterization, these productions acquire an almost incredible size. It seemed, in M. Rigot's case, to be impossible to conquer the evil, and the patient was destroyed.
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A Newfoundland dog had long been subject to mangy eruptions on the back and in the feet. They had suddenly disappeared, and the whole of the inside of the ear became covered with scaly eruptions. The skin was red; there was considerable thickening of the ear, and a discharge from the base of it. The canker-lotion was used, a physic-ball given every second day, and a seton inserted in the poll reaching from ear to ear. No apparent benefit resulted. A little calamine ointment, to which was added one-eighth part of mercurial ointment, was then tried, and considerable benefit immediately experienced. The dog no longer continued to scratch himself or to shake his head, and the ear became clean and cool. The seton was removed, and nothing remained but a little occasional redness, which the lotion very soon dispersed.
The owner, however, became ultimately tired of all this doctoring, and the animal was destroyed.
A poodle had had exceedingly bad ears during several months. There was considerable discharge, apparently giving much pain. The dog was continually shaking his head and crying. A seton was introduced, the canker-lotion was resorted to, and alterative and purgative medicines exhibited. On the 29th of December the discharge from the ear ceased; but, owing to the neglect of the servant, it soon broke out again, and there was not only much excoriation under the ear, but, from the matting of the hair, deep ulcers formed on either side, the edges of the wound were ragged, and the skin was detached from the muscular parts beneath. Probes were introduced on each side, which passed down the neck and nearly met. The smell was intolerably offensive, and the dog was reduced almost to a skeleton. I was, for the second time, sent for to see the case. I immediately recommended that the animal should be destroyed; but this was not permitted. I then ordered that it should daily be carefully washed, and diluted tincture of myrrh be applied to the wounds. They showed no disposition to heal, and the dog gradually sunk under the continued discharge and died.
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20th May, 1928
. — A spaniel screamed violently, even when it was not touched, and held its head permanently on one side, as if the muscles were contracted. The glands beneath the ear were enlarged, but the bowels were regular; the nose was not hot; there was no cough. A warm bath was ordered, with aperient medicine.
On the 22d she was no better. I examined the case more carefully. The left ear was exceedingly hot and tender: she would scarcely bear me to touch it. I continued the aperient medicine, and ordered a warm lotion to be applied, consisting of the
liquor plumbi acetatis
and infusion of digitalis. She improved from the first application of it, and in a few days was quite well. A fortnight afterwards the pain returned. The lotion was employed, but not with the same success. A seton was then applied. She wore it only four days, when the pain completely disappeared.
I have an account in my records of the conduct of a coward, who, coming from such a breed, was not worthy of the trouble we took with him. He was a Newfoundland dog, two years old, with considerable enlargement, redness, and some discharge from both ears. He was sent to our hospital for treatment. When no one was near him, he shook hia head and scratched his ears, and howled dreadfully. Many times in the course of the day he cried as if we were murdering him. We sent him home thoroughly well, and glad we were to get rid of him.
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I had some doubt, whether I ought not to omit the mention of this cruel practice. Mr. Blaine very properly says, that
"it is one that does not honour the inventor, for nature gives nothing in vain. Beauty and utility appear in all when properly examined, but in unequal degrees. In some, beauty is pre-eminent; while, in others, utility appears to have been the principal consideration. That must, therefore, be a false taste, that has taught us to prefer acurtailedorgan to a perfect one, without gaining any convenience by the operation." He adds, and it is my only excuse saying one word about the matter, that "custom being now fixed, directions are proper for its performance."
The owner of the dog commences with maiming him while a puppy. He finds fault with the ears that nature has given him, and they are rounded or cut into various shapes, according to his whim or caprice. It is a cruel operation. A great deal of pain is inflicted by it, and it is often a long time before the edge of the wound will heal: a fortnight or three weeks at least will elapse ere the animal is free from pain.
It has been pleaded, and I would be one of the last to oppose the plea, that the ears of many dogs are rounded on account of the ulcers which attack and rend the conch; because animals with short ears defend themselves most readily from the attacks of others: because, in their combats with each other, they generally endeavour to lay hold of the neck or the ears; and, therefore, when their ears are shortened, they have considerable advantage over their adversary. There is some truth in this plea; but, otherwise, the operation of cropping is dependent on caprice or fashion.
If the ears of dogs must be cropped, it should not be done too early. Four, five, or six weeks should first pass; otherwise, they will grow again, and the second cropping will not produce a good appearance. The scissors are the proper instruments for accomplishing the removal of the ear; the tearing of the cartilages out by main force is an act of cruelty that none but a brute in human shape would practise; and, if he attempts it, it is ten to one that he does not obtain a good crop. If the conch is torn out, there is nothing remaining to retain the skin round the auricular opening: it may be torn within the auditory canal, and as that is otherwise very extensible in the dog, it is prolonged above the opening, which may then probably be closed by a cicatrix. The animal will in this case always remain deaf, at least in one ear. In the mean time, the mucous membrane that lines the
meatus auditorias
subsists, the secretion of the wax continues; it accumulates and acquires an irritating quality; the irritation which it causes produces an augmentation of the secretion, and soon the whole of the subcutaneous passage becomes filled, and seems to assume the form of a cord; and it finishes by the dog continuing to worry himself, shaking his head, and becoming subject to fits.
Mr. Blaine very naturally observes, that,
"it is not a little surprising that this cruel custom is so frequently, or almost invariably, practised on pug-dogs, whose ears, if left alone to nature, are particularly handsome and hang very gracefully. It is hardly to be conceived how the pug's head — which is not naturally beautiful except in the eye of perverted taste — is improved by suffering his ears to remain."
If the cropping is to be practised, the mother should have been previously removed. It is quite erroneous, that her licking the wounded edges will be serviceable. On the contrary, it only increases their pain, and deprives the young ones of the best balsam that can be applied — the blood that flows from their wounds.
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Dr. Mercer, in
The Veterinarian
, of July, 1844, gives an interesting account of the production of polypi in the
meatus
of the ear. He considers that there are two kinds of polypi — first, the soft, vascular and bleeding polypus, usually produced from the fibro-cartilaginous structure of the outer half of the tube; and, secondly, the hard and cartilaginous polypus or excrescence produced from the lining membrane of its inner half. The first is termed the hæmatoid polypus, and the other the chondromatous. The dog suffering under either generally has a dull, heavy, and rather watery eye. He moans or whines at intervals. If his master ia present he feels a relief in pressing and rubbing his aching ear against him. At other times he presses and rubs his ear against the ground, in order to obtain a slight relief, flapping his ears and shaking his head; the mouth being opened and the tongue protruded, and the affected ear pointing to the ground. Then comes a sudden, and often a profuse, discharge of fetid pus. The local discharge of pus and blood becomes daily more and more fetid, and the poor animal becomes an object of disgust.
In the first variety of polypus, where it is practicable, the soft and vascular excrescence should be excised with a pair of scissors or a small knife, or it may be noosed by a ligature of silk or of silver wire, or twisted off with a pair of forceps. Immediately after its removal, the base of the tumour should be carefully destroyed by the nitrate of silver, and this should be repeated as long as there is any appearance of renewed growth. Any ulcer or carious condition of the
meatus
should be immediately removed.
In order to protect the diseased parts, a soft cap should be used, and within the ear a little cotton wadding may defend the ear from injury.
Dr. Mercer very properly remarks that, in the second or chondromatous variety of polypus of the
meatus
, the treatment must depend upon the concomitant circumstances. If the tumour is seated close to the
membrana tympani
, and has a broad and sessile base, then it cannot be excised or noosed with any degree of success. It must therefore be treated by the daily application of the solid nitrate of silver, applied exactly to its surface; and, in the intervals of application, the use of any collyria may be had recourse to. If the substance of the growth be firm and solid, and possess little sensibility, then a very speedy mode of getting rid of it is to divide its substance with a small knife; and afterwards, by applying the solid nitrate of silver, the tumour will soon be sloughed away.
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The dog is liable to polypi in the nasal cavity, in the anus, and in the vagina, which it will not be out of place to mention here.
The polypi of the nasal and of the anal cavities often show themselves under the form of rounded bodies, projecting from the nose or anus. Their size and consistence are variable — sometimes soft, tearing with the greatest facility, and bleeding at the slightest touch; at other times, solid and covered with pituitary membrane. They are generally the result of ulcerations, wounds, fractures, perforations of the turbinated bones, sinuses,&c. These polypous productions obstruct the passage of the air, and more or less impede the breathing. They are best extirpated by means of a ligature, or circular compression, on the pedicle of the polypus, and tightened every second day.
We may discover the presence of a tumour of this nature in one of the nasal passages, when, on putting our hand to the orifice of the nostril, there issues little or no air; or when we sound the nostril with the finger or a probe, or examine it on a bright day.
The methods of destroying polypi in the nasal cavity vary with the texture, size, form, and position of these excrescences. Excision with the bistoury, or with scissors, may be tried when the polypus is near the orifice of the nostril, and particularly when it is not large at the base. Excision should be followed by cauterization with the red-hot iron, by which a portion of the base of the tumour is destroyed, and which could not be reached by a sharp instrument. To succeed in these operations, it is frequently necessary to cut through the false nostril. The edges of the wound may afterwards be united by a suture.
The ligature, or circular compression, excised immediately on the pedicle of the polypus, by means of a wire or waxed string, and directed into the nasal cavity by means of a proper instrument, may he tried when the polypus is deeply situated, and particularly when its base is narrow. But, for this operation, which is difficult to perform, and which may be followed by a new polypous production, when the base is not perfectly destroyed, we may substitute the forcible detachment, especially when we have to act on vascular and soft excrescences.
The Italian greyhound is strangely subject to these polypi in the matrix or vagina. The reason for it is difficult to explain.
A bitch, ten years old, was brought to the author on the 20th December, 1843, with an oval substance, as large as a thrush's egg, occasionally protruding from the vagina. I advised that it should be removed by means of a ligature; but the owner was afraid, and a fortnight was suffered to pass before she was brought again. The tumour had rapidly increased; it was as large as a pigeon's egg, considerably excoriated, and the pedicle being almost as large as the tumour itself. The operation was now consented to. I passed a ligature as firmly round the pedicle and as high up as I could. The bitch scarcely seemed to suffer any pain.
3d Jan.
— The circulation is evidently cut off, and the tumour is assuming a thoroughly black hue, but it appears to cause no inconvenience to the dog. I tightened the ligature.
4th. The tumour is now completely black, considerably protruded, and apparently destitute of feeling. I again tightened the ligature.
5th. The tumour not appearing disposed to separate, and the uterus seeming to be drawn back by its weight, I cut off the tumour close to the ligature. Not the slightest pain seemed to be given, and the tumour was hard and black. There was, however, a very little oozing of bloody fluid, which continuing to the 8th, I injected a slight solution of alum into the vagina, and three days afterwards the discharge was perfectly stopped.
Although our author has given us several interesting and practical pages upon the diseases of the ear and its appendages, it seems to us that the arrangement of the matter is rather objectionable, and not sufficiently explicit to be easily comprehended by sportsmen, not before familiar with the subject; we therefore add a concise resumé or epitome of these troublesome affections, which we trust will be found of practical utility to the reader.
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Treatment. — The tumour, at its commencement, may be discussed by the application of astringent washes, as warm vinegar, water, and laudanum, or sugar of lead. When, however, it has become more extensive, the only remedy is opening it through its whole extent, and pressing out its purulent content. A poultice may then be applied, and tepid fomentations used for several days. It is often extremely difficult to heal up the abscess, or arrest the fetid discharge that is constantly collecting: a seton placed in the poll, in connexion with washes of a stimulating character, will, however, effect a cure, if patiently persevered in. Either of the above will answer this purpose:We used on one occasion tincture of iodine with perfect success in an old and obstinate case.
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This is a rather indefinite term, as applied to the diseased ear of a dog; in fact, any malignant corroding sore may be called a canker, no matter where situated. Some writers describe, under the head of canker, a violent chronic otitis, attended by a purulent sanguinoid discharge. Others understand by canker a species of erysipelatous inflammation, that makes its appearance on the inside of the flap, and extends itself to the interior of the ear. What we understand by canker, is an acute inflammation of the lining membrane of the ear, destroying the tympanum or drum, and producing total deafness. The secretion is often considerable, and if not removed, will soon fill up the cavity of the ear with a dark reddish deposit, which greatly increases the irritation and inflammation of the parts. Mr. Blaine states that he has seen this disease take a very malignant character, and extend its ravages over the face, destroying the soft parts, and even penetrating through the bone into the interior of the head.Causes. — This disease may he excited by any of those causes that produce a general or local inflammatory action; exposure to cold, the presence of malignant diseases on other portions of the body, high living, heat, confinement, or extraneous substances lodged in the organ itself.Water-dogs are most subject to this affection, owing, no doubt, to the frequent afflux of blood to these parts, while the remainder of the body is immersed in the water. A tendency to this peculiar inflammation may also be produced in these animals by the action of the water upon the delicate membranes of the ear, which occasions a violent shaking of the head and beating of the flaps, which not unfrequently bruises them considerably. Dogs that seldom or never go into the water are not, however, by any means exempt from the disease; as we have often seen it developed in terriers, mastiffs, and every species of mongrel.
The above mixtures should be warmed before using, otherwise the dog may resist their introduction.When the disease from bad treatment or neglect has subsided into the chronic form, and ulceration and suppuration have commenced, it will be necessary to pursue a somewhat different treatment, and remain more patient, awaiting the result.At this time the auditory passage is filled with a dark purulent secretion, which forms a thick and irritating crust.
If, however, the excrescences continue to sprout from the cartilage, and the discharge continues unabated and offensive, they may be excised and the parts brushed over with nitrate of silver in substance. After this operation the flap often becomes extremely tender and much swollen; poultices of poppy-heads or hops will often afford much relief.Setons are of much value in the treatment of obstinate cases, and should be placed in the poll, and kept open till a cure is effected, or the case abandoned.
If the disease has progressed far enough to destroy a considerable portion of the cartilages, and perforate the tympanum, more care is necessary in using ihe above washes, as the fluid will enter the internal ear through this opening, and cause much uneasiness to the animal, if not fatal consequences.
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Wounds of the flap are often occasioned by the tearing of poisonous briars, while hunting in close cover, or in conflict with other dogs.The former will generally heal up without much trouble, but the latter, when extensive, sometimes two or three inches in length, by requiring uniting by one or more sutures, to prevent deformity.
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When these little excrescences appear on the external or internal portions of the flap, they may be taken off with the knife, and caustic applied to the wound, to induce them to heal, and keep down further granulations.
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When a corroding sore of this nature attacks the edges of the ear, and refuses to yield to the application of a few stimulating washes, such as sulphate of copper, alum, borax, nitrate of silver, &c., the diseased edges may be pared off, and the actual cautery applied to the parts. This will frequently arrest its further progress.
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Polypi often spring up from the interior of the ear; they may be cut off with the scissors, or by the application of a fine wire, or horse-hair ligature. The wound should be touched with caustic, tincture of iodine, or the actual cautery.