Minor Operations
Docking—Setoning—Enemas—Fomentations—Blistering—Tumours and Warts
DOCKING
Such varieties as Fox, Airedale, Irish Terriers, Spaniels, etc., require to have their tails shortened, and this should be done when the puppies are, say, a couple or three weeks old. An old, but rather revolting custom is that of biting off the requisite portion.
A sharp pair of serrated scissors, or a chisel, will do the work satisfactorily, and nothing should be done to the cut end, beyond allowing the healing to follow its natural course.
SETONING
Setons and rowels are not used in the present day so much as in times gone by, nevertheless, when employed with discretion, are of service.
At one time setons were largely used for insertion into the poll when a dog had fits, especially during distemper. In the author's opinion they are injurious for this purpose, but as a counter-irritant in lung and bronchial complaints, good often results from their employment. Many local swellings can be dispersed through the insertion of either a set-on or a rowel. Tape, horse-hair, tow, or a circular piece of leather wrapped in tow, are the issues used. If a seton, the skin must be snipped at the inlet and outlet; the needle threaded and passed along under the skin (no deeper as a rule) to the point of exit, and the tape fastened off. It is usual to smear the tape with some stimulating substance, such as resin or turpentine ointment, in order to excite a speedy local inflammation. The tape must be moved (not removed) daily, kept clean, and smeared with the ointment twice weekly.
CLYSTERS OR ENEMAS (LAVEMENTS)
These may be either plain, medicated, or nutritive. For the two first-named purposes, either warm or cold water may be used, the amount varying with the effect it is desired to produce.
To empty the lower end of the bowel, from half to three pints will be found sufficient for most sporting dogs.
A little salt, soft soap, and glycerine, will increase the activity of the clyster.
A chronic, torpid condition of the lower end of the bowel is best overcome by injecting about half a teacupful of cold water into it every morning, at the same time allowing plenty of exercise and a soft diet, such as oatmeal, or wet bread and meat.
In diarrhœa, dysentery, etc., good results are often obtained by giving a cold boiled-starch clyster. About four tablespoonfuls will be enough at a time. When it is desirable to administer nourishment by the rectum, it is necessary to wash out the lower end of the bowel with a warm-water clyster, before injecting the nutritive medium.
The yolk of an egg, a dessertspoonful of brandy, and a teaspoonful of sulphuric ether makes a useful, sustaining enema.
Another good injection is a couple of teaspoonfuls of salt, dissolved in half a pint of tepid water, then injected.
Loss of blood, etc., can often be made up by the use of this saline injection.
FOMENTATIONS
For many purposes fomentations are superior to poultices, the chief difficulty being in keeping up the heat to the desirable standard.
A pad of thick flannel should be planned, and this soaked in boiling water, then wrung dry in a roller.
To assist in maintaining the heat, a piece of mackintosh sheeting ought to be put over the pad, and a dry flannel above all.
For difficult breathing, pain in the belly, or local pain, etc., moist warmth is exceedingly beneficial, and quite harmless under any circumstances.
In animals, it is a general custom to bathe the seat of disease with the hot water.
Perseverance is essential to success, and more harm results from hot fomentations applied in a half-hearted manner than where they are not used at all.
BLISTERING
Beyond the application of mustard, turpentine, or hot water, blistering agents are not much employed in the treatment of canine ailments.
As a remedy for external use in diseases of the bronchial tubes and lungs, mustard has not, in the author's opinion, any superior.
It can be used either as a paste applied directly to the skin, or in combination with boiled linseed poultices.
In long-haired dogs it is advisable to clip off some of the hair, so as to facilitate the full counter-irritant properties of the mustard.
It requires very little rubbing in, and it is not advisable to repeat the application, unless specially called for.
TUMOURS AND WARTS
A multiplicity of morbid growths are liable to occur in dogs, some of these growths being of a very simple nature, others of a malignant or recurrent order.
By far the commonest are warty growths upon lips, tongue, and generative organ.
It is remarkable, but these often disappear spontaneously.
Solitary warts, if sufficiently large, can be removed by tying a piece of strong whip-cord around the root of the growth. This remark is equally applicable to other small tumours.
Dressing with some caustic agent such as lunar caustic, strong acetic acid, blue-stone, etc., may be effected in some cases, and others (when on tongue), dusted with dry calcined magnesia.
Tumours about the belly, etc., demand professional skill.
Polypi, or stalked tumours, are commonly found growing from the mucous membrane of the ears, nose, and female generative passage.
They can be removed by ligature.