Symptoms Of Acute Bronchitis

Commence also with shivering, followed by constant hard cough. Air expired warm, but not so hot as in pneumonia. Inspiration and expiration both full. Cough after a time attended with expectoration of mucus, at first sticky, soon becoming frothy, and, finally, profuse and frothy. Pulse full and hard.

The Stethoscope gives a soap-bubble kind of sound, with wheezing.

Percussion elicits nothing of consequence.

Disease Terminates either by resolution, or by extention to the cellular membrane, constituting pneumonia in combination with bronchitis.

Symptoms Of Chronic Bronchitis

Respiration free, but quicker than natural. Cough constant and intense, evidently not restrained by fear of pain; sometimes to such an extent as to cause soreness of the muscles of the belly.

Stethoscope gives a rattling sound, as of soap bubbles, with a great deal of wheezing.

Percussion gives no result different from a state of health.

Terminates in resolution; or, if fatal, in an acccumulation of mucus, and consequent suffocation. Until very near suffocation the dog will almost always lie down; whereas the contrary is the case in pneumonia.

The Treatment will a good deal depend upon which of the above three conditions is present, though not to such an extent as to be of very great consequence. In pleurisy and pneumonia, bleeding will almost always be required in the early stage, but not in bronchitis, which seldom is benefited by loss of blood. Blisters, again, relieve pneumonia and bronchitis, but are actually prejudicial in pleurisy, where the close relation between the vessels of the pleura lining the chest, and the skin covering it, often causes the irritation of the latter to extend to the former, and thus increase the mischief it was intended to relieve. With regard to internal medicines, they are, fortunately, much the same in all three. Calomel and opium, with or without digitalis and tartar emetic, will generally be useful; and in bronchitis, rhubarb, opium, and ipecacuanha, as follows:-

Calomel and opium in powder, of each 1/2 to 1 grain ; tartar emetic, 1/4 to 1/2 grain; digitalis, 1/2 grain.

Confection enough to form a pill, to be given three times a day. Or,

Rhubarb powder, 2 grains ; ipecacuanha powder, 1/2 to 1 grain ; extract of opium, 1/2 to 1 grain ; compound tincture of benzoin, 2 drops.

Mix, and form a pill, to be given three times a day.

When these remedies have had the desired effect of relieving the inflammation, as evidenced by the breathing and pulse becoming slower, and by the dog being able to lie down, if the pneumonia has been present, some one of the cough mixtures or pills given in the chapter on drugs, under the head of Expectorants will be found beneficial; but it is generally difficult to say which of them will best suit any particular case. A trial may be made of one for two or three days, and if that fails, another should be substituted for it. The diet should be very low at first, and afterwards only a milk and farinaceous one, with vegetables, should be allowed for some weeks. When dropsy of the chest supervenes upon pleurisy, tapping has occasionally been had recourse to; but for sporting dogs it is wholly useless, because the animal never recovers sufficient bodily powers to be of real service in the field ; and it is only in pets whose lives are valued by their masters or mistresses that this operation should ever be had recourse to.

Chronic Bronchitis, with Spasm, usually known as spasmodic asthma, is very common among ladies' pets, who become overfed in consequence of the kindness of their mistresses, and their blood vessels gorged with foul blood, when spasm comes on with congestion of the mucous membrane of the large air-tubes, causing that frightful panting for breath which is so distressing in the human subject, and which even in the dog is by no means calculated to afford pleasure to the spectator. A fat, pursy, and asthmatic old dog is a miserable object of pity, and had far better be destroyed than suffered to live on in misery. The nose is dry and hot, the animal spirits are flagging; there is a distressing cough, and exercise is followed by an aggravation of the symptoms.

The Treatment should be by giving nauseating doses of tartar emetic, camphor, and henbane ; or of ipecacuanha with the two last, as follows: -

Ipecacuanha, 1/2 to 1 1/2 grains; camphor, 1 to 2 grains ; extract of henbane, 1 1/2 to 3 grains. Make into a pill, and give three times a day.

A blister or seton may be applied to the side, and low diet in small bulk should be given ; but there is little chance of doing more than to relieve a dog labouring under this complaint.

Consumption, or Phthisis, is a disease of the lungs, in which a peculiar condition, called tubercle, is developed in them; and when aggravated by cold, or often by the natural constitution of the dog, they become inflamed, are converted into abscesses, and cause the death of the animal by constitutional fever (hectic), and by the suffocation produced either by a vessel giving way, or by the quantity of matter discharged into the air-passages. The symptoms are very insidious, and many dogs have them developed to a great extent before their owners take any notice of their condition. Very little good can be effected by treatment, but sometimes cod-liver oil, with steel, will be of temporary service. In sporting dogs, however, it is seldom that it is desirable to prolong life with this condition of the system ; and it is never right to breed from dogs or bitches suffering under this disease, it being decidedly hereditary.

Inflammation of the Heart is another of the diseased conditions which attack the dog, generally from over-exertion in an unprepared state. There is usually a very rapid action of the heart, with a strong bounding pulse, and laborious breathing, unaccompanied by cough.

The Treatment is to be conducted upon lowering principles, with digitalis and nitre, and blistering or a seton in the side.