CHAPTER IX. 



CANINE DISEASES. 



The Susceptibility of the Breed to Disease Worms The 

 Dangers of Vermifuges Teething Troubles Distemper 

 Its Causes and Treatment Complications of Distemper 

 Recovery from Distemper Skin Diseases How to Kill 

 a Dog Humanely. 



IT IS not within the scope of a work such as 

 this to enter into exhaustive descriptions 

 of the details of the diseases that Boston 

 Terriers may suffer from or to give a com- 

 plete list of the medicines and treatments 

 that must be used in the case of any given 

 sickness, but it seems advisable to consider 

 some of the more important ones briefly. 

 The previous chapters must have convinced you that the 

 Boston Terrier is not an easy dog to raise, that the 

 rate of mortality is not only high, but that many are de- 

 formed or develop marked blemishes before maturity is 

 reached. . These are one of the principal causes of the high 

 market value of a good specimen of the breed and 

 while it increases the value, still it also increases the care and 

 trouble that must be expended upon their raising. It has been 

 pretty conclusively proved that the inbreeding that has been 

 necessary to produce the breed in its present perfected state 

 has been very largely responsible for its inability to withstand 

 and throw off the ravages of disease in its various forms. What- 

 ever the cause is it is a fact that all Boston Terrier breeders 

 have learned by bitter experience that dogs of their breed seem 

 to be especially susceptible to all canine diseases and more sick- 

 nesses end fatally with this breed than with others. It may 

 seem strange, in this age of deceit, to see a statement like the 

 above in a book devoted to the Boston Terrier and addressed 

 particularly to novices, but the author feels that the knowledge 

 of the high rate of mortality in the breed will come sooner or 

 later and he thinks that it as well to sound the warning at the 

 outset. If one goes into the breed realizing the difficulties 

 that beset his way he will be less liable to give it up when the 

 discouragements come, as come they will, than if he had an 



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