Some dogs, particularly high-bred spaniels, are subject to palsy of one side of the tongue, resulting either from general debility, or from some other ill-understood cause.

Symptoms

The disease is known by the tongue lolling out of the mouth, with an inclination towards one side - the healthy side; the tongue is still able to lap up food, but the dog cannot thoroughly clean his nose with it; the nose, therefore, gets covered with mucus; the tongue, from exposure to the air and want of the mucous secretion of the mouth, becomes dry and hard. The disease depends on structural disease, or functional disorder of the brain or nerves, leading to loss of power over the muscles which move one side of the tongue. In some breeds, the tongue hangs out of the mouth, perhaps to one side, as if the tongue is rather too long, or the snout too short. This is to be regarded as a congenital peculiarity of the breed, and not as a disease. Palsy of the tongue as compared with this condition is rare.

Treatment

Nux vomica is the most likely medicine to be of service in such a case as this; but to obtain its good effects it should be administered regularly for a considerable period.