As to worming being of any, even the slightest, protection, in case rabies should attack the dog, the idea is so preposterous, that I shall not here stay to notice it.
The tongue of the high-bred spaniel is often subject to partial paralysis of one side. When such is the case, the muscles of the healthy side draw the tongue in that direction; and the member hangs out of the mouth, rendering the appearance somewhat unsightly. The organ from exposure becomes dry and hard; and not being properly used to cleanse the nose, this last becomes harsh and encrusted upon such portion of its surface as the disabled tongue cannot reach. The dog is disfigured, but it manages to live, and seems to endure more inconvenience than positive pain. The muscles on the paralysed side do not appear to be entirely deprived of nervous power. I infer this to be the case because they do not waste, and therefore attribute the affection to loss of tone rather than to actual palsy.
The cause is not known. Some dogs are pupped in this condition; others are only affected in this way when age has far advanced. In the latter case the symptom is sudden, and nothing previous has been observed which would denote the probability of the attack; but, arguing from the description of animals which are subject to this affection, and the periods when it mostly is exhibited, we may attribute it to weakness of the constitution.
For the disease nothing of a local nature can be done. I have been induced to try various topical remedies, but not with any satisfactory result; and I am not very hopeful as to future experiments in the same direction. Constitutional remedies have more power; and by these, if we cannot cure, we may limit the evil. For pups, good nursing—not petting or pampering, but whatever can invigorate—wholesome diet, airy lodging, and sufficient exercise, will do much. For older animals, the same measures, combined with such medicines as correct the digestion and give tone to the system, will be proper. An operation of dividing the muscles of that side on which the tongue protruded was once successful; but on three subsequent occasions it failed, and I have therefore relinquished it; for it is not quite safe, and puts the animal to a great deal of suffering. Dog fanciers sometimes cut off the exposed portion of the tongue, and thereby conceal the defect; but this is a brutal custom, and should not be adopted. The animal so mutilated drinks with difficulty, and the nose ultimately becomes even more unsightly than was the appearance of the hanging tongue.
The tongue is sometimes injured by the teeth, especially during fits. In such cases the wounds generally heal quickly, and require no special attention. Should the sores not mend, the fault is in the system. To that, and not to the part, medicines should be directed, and the matter will be quickly settled.
Salivation should never be produced upon the dog. The largest and strongest of these animals can but ill sustain the constitutional effects of mercury; while to those of a delicate kind it is nearly certain death. It may be induced by inunction, or rubbing in of ointment, as surely as by calomel internally administered. Chemists mix up various ointments that are called black, blue, red, white, or yellow; and sell these as specifics for skin diseases, which are in the dog all denominated mange. Such things are applied to the entire surface of the body; and as they mostly contain either Turpeth or Ethiop's mineral calomel, or one of the preparations of mercury, no great time is required to produce their fullest effect. The operation of the metal is too frequently mistaken for an aggravation of the disorder; and when the chemist is next visited, he is told to make the stuff stronger, because the other made the dog worse. No warning nature can give will stop the proceeding. Night and day the dog is rubbed with the poison, till its gums are sore, or its teeth fall out; the saliva dribbles from the mouth; the glands enlarge, the dog refusing to eat, and is so weak that it can hardly stand; then, fearing death, a doubt is for the first time entertained, and a veterinary surgeon is requested to look at the animal, and say what it wants.
Chemists are not qualified to administer the drugs they sell to human beings; but they are fairly the murderers of a fourth part of the dogs they physic. They know nothing about these animals, and dispense poison under the name of medicine when they presume to treat them. I have had creatures brought to me in the most terrible condition; and when they have been under domestic treatment—that is, when the chemist has been consulted—I always look to find symptoms of salivation. The signs are not obscure; the gums are either soft, tender, and inflamed, or else very much retracted; the teeth are of a yellow or brownish color, loose and mottled on their surfaces, but not covered with tartar; the breath has a peculiar fetor, and the saliva flows from the lips, while the glands at the jaw are hard; the weakness is excessive, and the appearance dejected. Purgation may be present, and in some instances the whole of the hair has fallen off. One dog, a Scotch terrier, lost every portion of its coat, and was nearly a year before it regained the covering.
Here is a portrait of a Scotch terrier, and the reader will perceive the coat is by the artist truthfully depicted as remarkably long, full, and hairy.
The imagination can, from this likeness of the animal in health, conjure up the resemblance such an object as the poor dog must have presented without its coat. Nor was the loss of the hair the worst part of the business; it never afterwards grew to its proper length. The other symptoms which have been described were present. Fever also existed, though the debility in a great measure concealed it; nor was the issue of the case by any means certain for a week or even longer.