Sporting Dogs: Their Points and Management in Health and Disease

by Frank Townend Barton

JAUNDICE

Affections of the liver, or when the secretion or excretion of bile is perverted, the symptom known as jaundice results.

Very few people are unacquainted with the characteristic yellow colouration of the skin and visible mucous membranes.

The word "jaundice" comes from the French "jaune," yellow, and "icterus," a Greek word for golden thrush.

The yellow colour of the skin, white of eyes, mucuous membranes lining eyelids and cheeks is, of course diagnostic that the colouring matter of the bile is circulating throughout the system.

The urine is usually deep yellow and very scanty, and the motions often clay-coloured and hard, though this latter condition is frequently absent, in fact diarrhœa present.

This is particularly well marked in the so-called hepatic or bilious form of distemper.

Gall-stones, when impacted in the bile-ducts, give rise to jaundice and colic pains.

There is also a catarrhal condition of the bile-ducts that leads to the same jaundiced condition.