When the prolapsus is very large and there is a difficulty, or it is impossible to return it, it should be removed by operation, which is not dangerous if ordinary aseptic care is taken, especially if an ecraseur is used. When the prolapsus is removed by ligature, as recommended by some, blood-poisoning and death sometimes occur.
After removal, all that is necessary is to syringe the vagina out night and morning with a warm solution of boracic acid for a few days, and keep the bitch on a light diet.
Vagina (Stricture of):
Symptoms: This frequently occurs with bitches, more particularly with griffons and bulls. It does not cause any inconvenience, and it is seldom found out until it is wished to breed from her, and then proper service is not possible in consequence of the passage being constricted with a sort of fibrous ring.
Treatment: It consists in forcibly dilating the passage either with dilating forceps, or if these are not at hand it can easily be done with a well-greased finger. It is best to pass the point of the small finger first, and then afterwards the forefinger. Care must be taken not to use too much force to injure the parts. There is no objection to the bitch being served immediately after the dilatation has taken place.
Vagina (Tumour of):
Symptoms: The vagina is subject to a variety of tumours, as cancer, sarcoma, and particularly to a form of growth of a malignant and contagious nature to which bull-bitches seem especially liable. They are red, with broad base, and have the appearance of a ripe raspberry, but often larger. They vary in size from a raspberry to a Tangerine orange. They are particularly vascular, bleeding at the slightest touch. The growths extend inwards and outwards, often eating the vulva away. There is always more or less of a blood-like discharge.
Treatment: There is no cure for cancer or sarcoma when once established: the bitch should be mercifully destroyed. With regard to the other form of tumour described, with treatment the disease can be checked and the bitch may breed, but it is seldom or ever radically cured, and it is a question whether it would not be the soundest policy to destroy all bitches affected with this disease in consequence of its contagious nature, for although one bitch does not contract it from another, a bitch going to a dog when affected in this way is certain to infect the dog, and it may be some time before it is found out with him, and in the meantime he may, if a popular stud dog, have infected many bitches. If treatment is decided upon, the affected parts should be thoroughly curetted or scraped, and when the bleeding has ceased the raw surface from where the growths have been removed should, with the aid of a speculum, be dressed with chromic acid mixed with equal parts of water. The caustic must be repeated once or twice a week, and the scraping occasionally, if there are signs of the tumours growing again. The treatment is often a long and tedious one.