r • - DISEASES 43 



chorea that ever get completely cured. When the attack is but slight the 

 dog may live for years and prove a useful animal, as, except in severe 

 cases, it does not seem to greatly impair the general health. The con- 

 stant twitching is, however, so annoying a sight to most people that few 

 would care to keep a dog thus afflicted. Although dogs carefully and 

 properly treated in distemper are less likely to suffer from this disease, 

 yet it will occasionally occur in the best managed kennels, and so I must 

 proceed to consider its treatment. The first thing to be done is to attend 

 to the general health, and especially to see that the bowels are in a properly 

 regulated state; and it is better, if their action requires correction, to 

 endeavor to accomplish that object by a careful regulation of diet, rather 

 than by a resort to physic; indeed, all through chorea the food must be 

 of a nature easily digested and given with regularity if any course of 

 medicinal treatment is to be successful. The remedies recommended in 

 chorea are arsenic, sulphate of zinc, nitrate of silver and nux vomica and 

 its preparations. Arsenic I do not recommend, but either of the following 

 may be tried, and it is sometimes found that using them alternately has 

 a more beneficial effect than a perseverance with one remedy only. Pills 

 may be made thus: 



Sulphate of Zinc. Pills. 



Sulphate of zinc 2 4 grains 



Extract of gentian 18 grains 



Powdered gum acacia 18 grains 



Make into twelve pills. Dose for a dog 30-lb. to 50-lb. weight, one 

 pill twice a day. Small dogs a half pill as a dose. 



Nitrate of Silver Pills. 



Nitrate of silver 3 grains 



Bread 2 drams 



Make into twenty-four pills. Dose for a dog 30-lb. to 50-lb. weight, one 

 pill twice a day given at the time of feeding. Small toy dogs of 

 10 to 12 lbs. give one-half a pill as a dose. 



The following pills I have found Very successful, and can Btrongly 

 recommend them, although, of course, they a/e not infallible. As the 

 ingredients require very great accuracy in weighing, and very careful 

 mixing, this must be left to a properly qualified dispensing chemist, and 

 the box containing the pills should be kept strictly in the master's pos- 

 session, for fear of accident: 



Strychnine 1 grain 



Quinine 18 grains 



Extract of belladonna 6 grains 



Extract of gentian 1 dram 



Powder for Compond Rhubarb Pill 1 dram 



Mix very carefully and divide into forty-eight pills. Dose for a dpg 



