Dog Secretory Gland Depressants
Belladonna, that wondrous panacea, used to pervade all the old veterinary books. It was a favorite remedy used by all sorts of people. The old horse jockeys used to give mixtures of it with arsenical preparations to give temporary relief to horses with heaves (chronic emphysema) so that they could trade them to some unsuspecting victim.
If a dog has been eating plants in a garden where this deadly nightshade (belladonna) grows, and you see it bumping into objects, trying to get into a dark spot; if you open its mouth and find it dry; if its temperature is high, heart very rapid, pulse weak, and gait abnormal; if it is restless and excited – call your veterinarian. He or she can flush out the offending herbage, inject preparations repeatedly until the pet’s mouth shows moisture, and save the dog.
Atropine is derived from belladonna, which today is seldom used by small dog practitioners, and has many uses. Atropine does almost everything that the parent product will do. But other drugs with the same effects are also used. All are given principally to cause dilation of the pupils, as in eye examinations; to dry secretions, because they inhibit glandular secretions with remarkable efficacy; to aid in preventing car sickness; and to counteract overdoses of certain drugs.
One of the most common secretary gland problems faced by dogs and even cats is that of the anal glands. In case you often find your dog to be rubbing its sacks in the carpet of your drawing room you might take your dog to a vet clinic for an anal sack checkup. The anal sacks are generally located below the skin and the sphincter muscles around the rectum. There are small ducts that lead directly into the tissues of the rectum. The secretion is brown and has a strong smell and odor. The sphincter muscles squeeze the sacks towards the rectal wall and the secretions produced by the sacks get passed out along with the fecal matter.
In earlier days the anal sacks were used by the dogs to identify one another. The usage of the sack in modern times is no more existent. The problem arises in the sacks when the secretion is not properly defecated through the stool. In earlier times dogs used to feed on large quantities of meat and bones which makes their feces as hard as a stool. The sphincter muscles squeeze the sacks into the hard feces so that the secretion gets out. Nowadays, this hardly takes place since the protein-rich diet that we normally provide our dogs does not form very hard stool, and as a result of which the secretion of the sacks is not passed out through the feces properly.
Surgery is probably the best possible way to cure the disease that crops up due to improper defecation of the secretion. On taking your dog to a vet surgeon he would surgically remove the sacks. Since the sacks are of no importance in modern times the general health of your dog would remain undamaged.
See more: Dog Sedatives Problems