The nature of the disease having been ascertained

The nature of the disease having been ascertained

The nature of the disease having been ascertained

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.