Symptoms: The gland is swollen and very painful to the touch, the scrotum is generally inflamed, red, and thickened. The dog walks with stiffness in the hind legs, and there is generally a rise of two or three degrees of the temperature.
Treatment: Frequent hot poppy-head tea fomentations, made by boiling for ten minutes two crushed poppy-heads in a quart of boiling water and then straining the solid matter out through fine muslin. Aperient medicine should be given and the dog kept on a light diet for a few days.
Testicles (Enlargement of):
Symptoms: The gland or glands are more or less enlarged, and they have become so as the result, in most cases, of some injury; but occasionally the causes cannot be traced: this is especially so with old dogs. The condition is not of an uncommon occurrence. It is not often that both glands are affected.
Treatment: Medicinal treatment in these cases is useless. If the gland is much enlarged and continues to increase in size, it should be removed by operation; but very often after getting to a certain size it ceases to increase, and if it does not cause any discomfort by hanging very low and interfering with the dog’s walking, or looks very unsightly, it may be left alone, especially if the patient is an aged one, and it is an old dog’s complaint.
Tetanus:
Symptoms: A rare disease in dogs, but does sometimes follow a bad wound, particularly to the eye. Often it is difficult to account for the cause. The disease, when it attacks dogs, generally only affects the muscles of the jaw (see [Lock-jaw]), but when the whole body is affected, it commences with stiffness of the muscles of the limbs and neck, followed shortly afterwards by violent spasms of the whole body, including the muscles of the jaw, which cannot be forced open, and the throat is also affected, making it impossible to swallow. The pain during the spasms is acute and the temperature very high, often over 107. The disease generally terminates fatally.
Treatment: Keep patient quiet in a dark place, and relieve spasms by giving from one-twelfth[1] to one-fourth of a grain of acetate of morphia, with from ⅟₂₅₀th[1] to ⅟₁₀₀th of a grain of sulphate of atropine in a few minims of water, injected under the skin. The dose may be repeated every six or eight hours.
To keep up the strength, try and get the patient to swallow white of egg and milk; also Sanatogen mixed with milk or water. When unable to swallow the strength must be maintained by nutritive enemas, as peptonised milk, from one[1] to six tablespoonfuls given every three hours alternately with one or two peptonised beef suppositories. Brandy, if necessary, may be given with the milk.