all, no mild ointment will dispose such an ulcer to heal, and recourse must be had at once to a caustic application. A scruple of the nitrate of silver must be rubbed down with an ounce of lard, and a little of it applied twice every day, and rubbed tolerably hard into the sore until it assumes a healthy appearance; it may then be dressed with the common calamine ointment.
If the discharge should return, the practitioner must again have recourse to the caustic ointment.
The cartilage will never close, but the integument will gradually cover the exposed edges, and the wound will be healed. The ear will, however, long continue tender, and, if it should be much beaten, by the shaking of the head, the ulcer will reappear. This must be obviated by occasionally confining the ears, and not overfeeding the dog.
Some sportsmen are accustomed to
round
the ears, that is to cut off the diseased part. In very few instances, however, will a permanent cure be effected, while the dog is often sadly disfigured. A fresh ulcer frequently appears on the new edge, and is more difficult to heal than the original one. Nine times out of ten the disease reappears.
The Newfoundland dog is very subject to this disease, to remedy which recourse must be had to the nitrate of silver.
Spaniels have often a mangy inflammation of the edges of the ear. It seldom runs on to canker; but the hair comes off round the edges of the ear, accompanied by much heat and scurfiness of the skin. The common sulphur ointment, with an eighth part of mercurial ointment, will usually remove the disease.
From the irritation produced by canker in or on the ear, and the constant flapping and beating of the ear, there is sometimes a considerable effusion of fluid between the integument and the cartilage occupying the whole of the inside of the flap of the ear. The only remedy is to open the enlarged part from end to end, carefully to take out the gossamer lining of the cyst, and then to insert some bits of lint on each side of the incision, in order to prevent its closing too soon. In a few days, the parietes of the cyst will begin to adhere, and a perfect cure will be accomplished
If the tumour is simply punctured, the incision will speedily close, and the cyst will fill again in the space of four-and-twenty hours. A seton may be used, but it is more painful to the dog, and slower in its operation.