SYMPTOMS OF MUSCULAR RHEUMATISM IN THE DOG.
Muscular rheumatism is common in dogs. It is most common and most marked in the back and loins, though the neck may suffer, or the disease may be generalized. It is painful to move and the subject seeks to be as much as possible undisturbed. He walks stiffly and slowly, carrying the limbs with as little movement of the joints as possible, and in bad cases yelps occasionally from sudden pain. He can no longer be tempted to go up or down stairs or to make any special effort. When touched on the back or loins he will wince, cry out, or even snap at the offender. In some cases the pain is so acute that even a feint to touch the back will draw out a yelp. If the neck is affected it may be held so stiffly that the dog can barely reach the ground to find his food, or if unilateral the head is turned to one side. Even the muscles of the jaws may be affected, causing prehension and mastication to be difficult and imperfect. Defecation and urination are also interfered with and the straining may draw forth plaintive cries.
The rapid shifting of the morbid process from one group of muscles to another is often very striking, and if one pronounces on the exact seat of the disease, it is liable to be speedily rendered inexact by a sudden change of place. There is further a great disposition to the implication of the heart and especially the valves. This is shown by irregularity and inequality of the pulse by intermissions and palpitations, by a blowing murmur with the first heart sound and by oppressed breathing.
Short, shallow breathing is also caused when the intercostal muscles are attacked (pleurodynia). Various digestive troubles are also common, to which the difficult defecation and impacted rectum largely contribute.
Emaciation makes more or less progress, and the muscles of the hind parts especially become weak and atonic until marked paresis or actual paraplegia sets in, and the hind limbs are extended backward and dragged helplessly. In fat, sluggish, overfed and pampered animals the lack of control of the hind limbs may come on at an early stage. Stiffness due to strongylus gigas in the kidney or stephanurus or cysticercus cellulosa in the lumbar muscles must not be mistaken for rheumatism.