DISTEMPER 169 



The dose is from one-tenth to one-third of a grain of the powder, at in- 

 tervals of three or four hours. 



"Epileptic fits and nervous symptoms are difficult to treat with any 

 degree of success during the course of the disease. If they are due to 

 reflex action, as from the patient cutting teeth, lance the gums; if due to 

 worms, the system is generally too debilitated to stand the powerful drugs 

 necessary to remove- or destroy these pests. The patient, however, can be 

 temporarily relieved by bromide in doses of from five to twenty grains, 

 four or five times a day, either in a capsule or a watery solution. If the 

 excitement is extreme the bromide can be combined with from three to 

 ten grains of chloral. The latter drug, when administered, should be mixed 

 with syrup of mucilage to prevent its irritating the throat. 



"Vomiting should, if possible, be prevented by carefully selecting 

 those foods that ihe stomach seems best able to digest, but if it is so 

 irritable as to expel the most easily digested foods, give from two to four 

 drops of Scheele's strength of hydrocyanic acid, combined with from two 

 to eight grains of pepsin, which will relieve the irritability of the digestive 

 organs and stop the vomiting. 



"Diarrhea must not be too hurriedly checked, unless the discharges are 

 so frequent as to debilitate the animal. In mild cases give paregoric in from 

 one-half to two teaspoonful doses, and if that is not effectual a mixture 

 of from five to ten grains of chalk and from five to fifteen drops of ether 

 and laudanum may be given in a little milk or soup. 



"In arriving at the proper close of the various drugs I have recom- 

 mended, the minimum dose is suitable for clogs weighing, when developed, 

 from fifteen to thirty pounds, and the maximum is for clogs that will weigh 

 in the vicinity of one hundred pounds. Larger or smaller animals should 

 have the dose correspondingly increased or decreased, as the case may be. 

 Puppies six months of age will stand half the dose given a grown animal 

 of the same breed, and for puppies under six months a corresponding di- 

 minution of the dose must be made. 



"In conclusion I again desire to caution the owner against exposing 

 puppies to cold during the course of the disease, or when the patient begins 

 to convalesce. Frequently in cases of distemper a very decided improve- 

 ment in the condition of the patient will be observed, and the owner cor- 

 respondingly elated and encouraged by a spring-like, sunny day, particu- 

 larly if the weather has been previously damp and stormy, he will admit 

 the puppy to the kennel yard for breath of fresh air. The puppy in most 

 cases, after blinking at the sun and stretching, will select the dampest spot 

 that the sun strikes in the kennel yard and curl itself up. A few moment's 

 exposure under these conditions is sufficient, and the next morning the old 

 symptoms, with incerased severity, are present, or the little fellow's la- 

 bored breathing indicates too plainly the fatal inflammation and conges- 

 tion of the lungs." 



The following is valuable on this disease: A. J. Sewell, M. D. C. V. S., 

 who has lately been appointed veterinarian surgeon to the King of Eng- 

 land, gives the following advice regarding the spreading of distemper: 



"As distemper just now seems particularly prevalent, and the largo 

 shows recently held are sure to increase the number of cases, this article 

 will assist readers in recognizing the disease at the commencement, so that 

 the infected animal may be isolated early, and thus prevent, if possible, the 

 spread of the disease to other dogs, especially young puppies, which have 

 always a very poor chance of recovering. 



"I know some few people, if they get a case of distemper in their 

 kennels, take no means of preventing it spreading; on the contrary, I have 

 heard them say that they let all those puppies which have not had the 

 disease come purposely in contact with the sick, one, so as to let all those 

 have it that will, and get over it for the time being. I must confess this 

 is not my practice with my own dogs; on the contrary, I take every possible 

 precaution T can to prevent them having it, and I know most breeders are 

 as ^anxious as myself (o avoid it. 



"As shows are no doubt the greatest source of spreading distemper, 



