[Cause] of goître.
— In many cases, this enlargement of the thyroid glands is plainly connected with a debilitated state of the constitution generally, and more particularly with a disposition to rickets. I have rarely seen a puppy that had had mange badly, and especially if mange was closely followed by distemper, that did not soon exhibit goître. Puppies half-starved, and especially if dirtily kept, are thus affected; and it is generally found connected with a loose skin, flabby muscles, enlarged belly, and great stupidity. On the other hand, I have seen hundreds of dogs, to all appearance otherwise healthy, in whom the glands of the neck have suddenly and frightfully enlarged. I have never been able to trace this disease to any particular food, whether solid or liquid; although it is certainly the frequent result of want of nutriment.
Some friends, of whom I particularly inquired, assured me, that it is not to any great extent prevalent in those parts of Derbyshire where goître is oftenest seen in the human being.
It is periodical in the dog. I have seen it under medical treatment, and without medical treatment, perfectly disappear for a while, and soon afterwards, without any assignable cause, return. There is a breed of the Blenheim spaniel, in which this periodical goître is very remarkable; the slightest cold is accompanied by enlargement of the thyroid gland, but the swelling altogether disappears in the course of a fortnight. I am quite assured that it is hereditary; no one that is accustomed to dogs can doubt this for a moment.
Treatment
. — I am almost ashamed to confess how many inefficient and cruel methods of treatment I many years ago adopted. I used mercurial friction, external stimulants, and blisters; I have been absurd enough to pass setons through the tumours, and even to extirpate them with the knife. The mercury salivated without any advantage, the stimulants and the blisters aggravated the evil; the setons did so in a tenfold degree, so that many dogs were lost in the irritative fever that was produced; and, although the gland, when directed out, could not be reproduced, yet I have been puzzled with the complication of vessels around it, and in one case lost my patient by hemorrhage, which I could not arrest.
the power of iodine in the dispersion of glandular tumours was first spoken of, I eagerly tried it for this disease, and was soon satisfied that it was almost a specific. I scarcely recollect a case in which the glands have not very materially diminished; and, in the decided majority of cases, they have been gradually reduced to their natural size. I first tried an ointment composed of the iodine of potassium and lard, with some, but not a satisfactory result. Next I used the tincture of iodine, in doses of from five to ten drops, and with or without any external local application; but I found, at length, that the simple iodine, made into pills with powdered gum and syrup, effected almost all that I could wish. It is best to commence with the eighth of a grain for a small dog, and rapidly increase it to half a grain, morning and night. A larger dog may take from a quarter of a grain to a grain. In a few instances, loss of appetite and slight emaciation have been produced; but then, the medicine being suspended for a few days, no permanent ill effect has ever followed the exhibition of iodine.
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