Foreign Articles in the Throat
When a substance, such as a bone, has become impacted in the throat, the better plan is to attempt to push it downwards into the stomach, as there is but little hope of extracting it.
A portion of sponge may be securely tied on the end of a piece of ratan, whalebone, or other flexible material, and inserted in the mouth, may be carried over the tongue down the throat against the foreign article, which may then be gently pushed before it. If this should not succeed, and the substance appears firmly imbedded in the throat, an incision may be made in the œsophagus and the bone extracted. — L.
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Bronchocele or Goître
in the dog is almost daily forced upon our notice. If a spaniel or pug-puppy is mangy, pot-bellied, rickety, or deformed, he seldom fails to have some enlargement of the thyroid gland. The spaniel and the pug are most subject to this disease. The jugular vein passes over the thyroid gland; and, as that substance increases, the vein is sometimes brought into sight, and appears between the gland and the integuement, fearfully enlarged, varicose, and almost appearing as if it were bursting. The trachea is pressed upon on either side, and the œsophagus by the left gland, and there is difficulty of swallowing. The poor animal pants distressingly after the least exertion, and I have known absolute suffocation ensue. In a few cases ulceration has followed, and the sloughing has been dreadful, yet the gland has still preserved its characteristic structure. Although numerous abscesses have been formed in the lower part of it, and there has been considerable discharge, viscid or purulent, the upper part has remained as hard and almost as scirrhous as before.