The relief should be directed wholly to keep the cancer, for such it is, in a passive or quiescent state. There is no hope that nature will remove it; and every effort must be made to prevent its malignant character being by accident or otherwise provoked. With a little care the dog may die of old age, and the disease may even at the time of death be dormant. A very mild mercurial ointment may be daily applied to the surface. This will remove scurf, allay irritability, and prevent the itching, which might induce the animal to injure the part. The food must be good, proportioned to the work the creature has to perform,—sufficiently nutritive, but easy of digestion, and by no means heating. The stomach must be strengthened by tonics and vegetable bitters, combined with alkalies. Sedatives are sometimes required, and hyosciamus is in that case to be preferred. A course of iodide of potassium is likewise frequently beneficial; but it must be employed only in alterative doses, and persevered with for a considerable period. The eighth of a grain or half-a-grain may be given three times a day for six months; and on the first indication of irritability appearing, the medicine must be resumed. Should the symptoms of activity be such as to excite alarm, the iodide must be administered in quantities likely to affect the system. This is to be done with safety, by dissolving two drachms of the salt in two ounces of water, every drop of which will then hold in solution the eighth of a grain of the medicine. From two to ten drops may be given at the commencement, and every day afterwards one drop may be added to the dose, which should be regularly administered thrice in the twenty-four hours. The physic should thus be gradually increased until the appetite fails; or the eyes become inflamed; or the animal is in an obvious degree dull. When that result is obtained, the dose ought to be withheld for a time, or to be diminished three or twelve drops, and the lessened quantity only given until the symptoms have subsided. The spirits, or appetite, having returned, and sufficient time having been allowed to make certain of the fact, the dose may once more be increased; and thus by degrees be augmented, until it is worked up to from fifty to a hundred drops three times a day, beyond which it ought not to be pushed. Even while this is being done, it is well to give tonic and strengthening pills; but purgatives are to be used with extreme caution.
Too frequently our assistance is not sought until the disease has assumed its worst aspect. There is then an open cancer, and we are asked to cure it. There is in medicine no known means of performing so desirable an object; physic can, in such a case, only be palliative—whatever hope then remains must rest upon the employment of the knife. The surgeon, however, must well examine the part before he consents to operate. Entreaties will not unfrequently be urgent; and where the life of an animal only is involved in the result, it is hard to say "no" to supplications which may be accompanied with tears. The professional man, however, must consult his judgment, and by its dictates resolutely abide; for those who are most eager in their requests are always most sanguine in their hopes. The issue, if unsuccessful, will not do otherwise than expose the surgeon to reproaches, perhaps more bitter than the supplications to which he yielded were imploring. Even should the proprietor be silent, the reputation of the operator will be injured; for, when the knife is resorted to, mankind will not tolerate failure. Therefore it is prudent, and also humane, to consider how far surgery can eradicate the affection ere excision is employed to add to the immediate suffering, and perhaps hasten the consequence it was designed to prevent.
The tumor should be circumscribed, or, at all events, there should be around it a fair proportion of healthy skin whenever its removal is attempted. When such exists, the operation is justifiable; but without such being present, it is to be condemned. The skin is wanted to close the orifice, and it must be healthy, in order that it may properly unite. In extreme cases, where the life of the animal depends upon activity, it may be proper to remove both testicles; but this should, if possible, be avoided.
Castration in the dog is not of itself dangerous; but it renders the animal disposed to accumulate fat, and destroys many of those qualities for which it is esteemed. The creature afterwards becomes lethargic, and its spirits never are recovered. It is best performed by cutting through the spermatic nerve, and scraping the artery, so as to separate it; taking care to do this sufficiently high up to prevent the cord from being exposed.
When the operator has decided to take away the spermatic glands, he does so at the commencement of the operation. With one cut he lays the scrotum open, and pulling forth the testicle, divides the nerve; then with the edge of a blunt but coarse knife, scrapes it as the cords lie upon his finger. Having done this on one or both sides, as the case may require, he inspects the tumor, the substance of which is now exposed to view. By the aspect of the growth he decides upon the course he will next adopt; or rather shapes the manner he had proposed to proceed. Seldom will it occasion him to change his plan; but he must be prepared to do so, if the appearances should be contrary to his anticipations. The skin is here of primary importance; wherever it is not involved, it is dissected back, and every portion of hard or gristly matter scrupulously sought for and cut away. All such substance being excised, care is then directed to bring the edges together. A pair of scissors may be required to make them exactly even, but the less snipping there may be the better. To retain the lips of the wound in the places desired, collodium will be found far superior to sutures or plasters. It is with a camel's hair pencil laid in bands along the parts, which are held in their intended situations while it dries. A few threads of linen are embedded in it while it is in a liquid state, so as to increase its strength; and layer after layer is added until the mind is assured the purpose is obtained. The application must on no account be made in one continuous sheet; for before union can take place suppuration must be established, and spaces are necessary to allow the matter to escape. Therefore, in several fine strips stretching over the wound, and holding its edges close, the collodium is to be employed; and this being ended, subsequent attention is generally required only to regulate the health, on which the healing process will greatly depend.
To stone in the bladder the dog is liable. The cause cannot be directly traced, but the symptoms are not obscure; the animal is constantly voiding its urine, which, though small in quantity, is not of a healthy character. A few drops of blood occasionally are passed; and, in attempting to go down stairs, sudden cries are often emitted. Fits of pain and seasons of illness are frequent, and the point of the penis is protruded from the sheath, never being withdrawn. The leg is not raised to void the urine; but the creature strains when the act has either been accomplished, or there is no power to perform it. If the dog be taken on the knee, and one knowing the situation of the contents gently manipulates the abdomen, the body may be felt within the bladder, which will mostly be contracted and empty.
The nature of the disease having been ascertained, little can be done beyond relieving the immediate distress. Some writers have given directions for operating under such circumstances; but none of them tell us they have successfully performed lithotomy upon the animal. In every case of the kind upon which I have been consulted, the idea of such a measure was not for an instant to be countenanced. Dogs thus afflicted, are mostly small, and the calculus is generally of great proportional size, prior to our attention being directed to it. In a creature so very delicate as the dog, every operation requires to be well considered before it is resorted to; and though the cutler might make knives sufficiently diminutive for the occasion, it may be doubted if our hands are sufficiently nice to employ them. The stones I have met with were of a size I would not have liked to have drawn through the urethra; and therefore, though I will not assert lithotomy cannot be performed upon the dog, I must confess I have not performed it, and must say I should require strong inducements to attempt it upon the animal.
All I aim at is to limit the increase of the deposit, and to alleviate the painful symptoms it gives rise to. A strictly vegetable diet best accomplishes the first object, and doses of ether and laudanum, repeatedly administered by mouth and injection, most speedily secure the second. Pills of henbane are likewise of service; and with them small quantities of the balsams may be combined, though the last should not be continued if they have any marked diuretic action. The peppers, especially cubebs, I have thought serviceable, and very minute doses of cantharides have seemed to be attended with benefit. Here, however, I speak with doubt; for the agents have by me been employed only in homœopathic quantities, and I have not the means of saying they had very decided action. They appeared to do good, since under their use the animals improved; and that is all I can state in their behalf. Proprietors, however, when the pressing annoyance is allayed, being told there is no prospect of a radical cure, do not generally afford us much opportunity to watch the action of medicines.
Hæmaturia or bloody urine is met with in the dog; and I (having been unfortunate in those cases where I employed acetate of lead) adopted small doses of cantharides, and with these to my surprise succeeded; for which reason I have persevered in my homœopathic treatment. The quantity of tincture of cantharides I employ is three minims to two ounces of water, and to my wonder, this appears to answer every purpose; the only fault, indeed, that a general practitioner might find with it being that it did its work too quickly.
Swelling of the glans penis is not uncommon. It comes on suddenly, and the dog is by it rendered offensive to the owner's sight. The membrane is in a state of erection, and being so, is of course protruded; and while thus exposed, the end of it loses its mild red color, becoming of a paler hue, and at the same time enlarging. Its size increases to such an extent, that when the erection subsides, it cannot be retracted.