102 DISEASES 



surgeon you can find. A cure is very doubtful, even with the most skilled 

 treatment; but, as a matter of duty and humanity, try and help your dog 

 through this most dangerous trouble if it is possible. All owners of dogs 

 should keep informed as to the veterinarians in their town or city, as to 

 which one is experienced in canine practice, so that when a case is urgent, 

 you will know what one to call in and just where to find him. Officious 

 ignorance and rough handling would only cause pain without the remotest 

 hope of good results. 



Looseness of the Bowels — See Diarrhea and Dysentery. 



Lumbago. — See Rheumatism. 



Leucorrhoea. — Use as an injection peroagina sulphate of zinc, % dram; 

 acetate of lead, Vz dram to a pint of water. One injection per day, except 

 in bad cases it can be used twice daily. 



Lacteal Tumors. — No better treatise on this trouble can be given than 

 Dalziel's: 



"Every dog owner must know what a common <:hing it is to see a bitch 

 with an enlargement of one of her teats, or the structures adjoining them. 

 Now, not only is such very unsightly, but when grown to a considerable 

 Size, as it will do, it is very liable to injury. 



"The immediate cause is the damming up of one of the milk-ducts; 

 the teat is 'blind,' as it is called in dairy parlance — that is, the flow of 

 milk through it is obstructed by some malformation. Far oftener, however, 

 the milk itself is the cause; that is to say, it is not drained off sufficiently, 

 when it hardens, acts as a foreign body, and still further as an irritant, be- 

 cause of its chemical decomposition. The effect of this is that more or less 

 inflammation of the milk-gland is produced, a hard lump forms and increases 

 gradually, and once begun, the evil develops more and more at each return- 

 ing period after oestrum, when pupping has or should have taken place. 



"From the numerous questions I have received on the subject it does 

 not appear to be generally known by those who keep dogs that some bitches, 

 even if they have been secluded from the dog during the period of 'heat,' 

 will secrete a fluid much resembling milk at the time they would have had 

 pups had impregnation been allowed, but such is the case. It is, therefore, 

 the duty of the owner to note the time and look out for the evidence of 

 this secretion and have it removed by hand, or by one of the many breast- 

 exhausters, giving at the same time a light diet, with an extra proportion of 

 boiled vegetables and a few doses of cooling, aperient medicine. Permit- 

 ting a bitch when in milk to lie on cold bricks or flags, or to be exposed in 

 other ways to cold and damp, may also cause obstruction af the teat and 

 subsequent tumors; while blows, bruises and wounds sometimes produce a 

 like result. A not uncommon cause of these lacteal tumors Is the hurried 

 drying up of the milk by artificial means. It is sometimes desirable to 

 destroy pups that are the result of a mesalliance, but it is absolutely cruel 

 to deprive the poor mother of all her progeny. In addition to the cruelty, 



