PET RABBITS, CAVIES, AND MICE. 23 



objects is a young rabbit with scours. It sets its back 

 and its fur up, sits absolutely dejected, and refuses food 

 or drink. Death in the majority of cases terminates its 

 suffering. It is often difficult to trace the origin of 

 scours. Young rabbits, amongst which it the more 

 frequently occurs, are much more ravenous than adults, 

 and they will search about for every atom of food. Often 

 they pick up a bit of stale food or green meat, accident- 

 ally overlooked. Sometimes the hot weather will send 

 them off. Often overcrowding or fright will do it. If 

 you can, in the early stages of the attack, get them to 

 drink plenty of cold water, it will relieve and often cure 

 them. A very large breeder recently told us that he 

 battled successfully with an attack of scours in some 

 valuable young Belgian Hares. He could not trace its 

 origin, except to the hot weather and a liberal supply of 

 greenfood. But he tried as a last resort brandy and 

 raw eggs. That was successful. If so in young stock, 

 it may well be tried with adults. In any case diarrhoea 

 demands prompt treatment. Our advice is to visit a 

 chemist and ask him to mix the proper quantities of an 

 antidote for the complaint. But if we can get adult 

 rabbits, or young stock, to drink plenty of cold water, 

 we seldom need to go further. Some recommend 

 chlorodyne, others arrowroot, etc. But it is best to 

 watch your food supply carefully, and avoid wet or 

 stale food either green or otherwise. 



INFLAMMATION 



Is often a natural corollary to scours. The latter very 

 frequently develops into inflammation of the bowels, and 

 when it does hardly any power or skill on earth can 

 combat it. You cannot deal with a rabbit like you can 

 with a human patient, and the treatment which might 

 be adopted to allay scours needs to be materially altered 

 when inflammation has to be dealt with. This, of 

 course, has reference to inflammation of the bowels in its 

 acute form as a result of diarrhoea. Mustard leaves, etc., 

 cannot be applied to rabbits, and often the admtnistra-. 

 tion of medicine induces so much exhaustion as to do 

 more harm than good. Inflammation of the lungs, pro- 

 ceeding from cold is equally fatal, and up to the present 

 time this disease has defied most of the attempts to 



