]c4 



responsible for this mortality. The Distemper Re- 

 search will, we all hope, find some remedy that will 

 minimize the effects of the disease, if it does not banish 

 it altogether, but until that moment arrives we should 

 take all available precautions to maintain the health 

 and spirits of the young hounds. Until the moment 

 when the dread complaint appears, I firmly believe 

 that plenty of fresh air and exercise are of the very 

 greatest importance, but no exercise should be given 

 a convalescent for at least a fortnight after recovery. 

 The frequency with which the disease appears in a 

 gastritis or typhoid form makes keeping the stomach 

 in a healthy condition an essential point to be remem- 

 bered, and this cannot be done if it is full of worms. 

 When ulceration appears, as it does more often than 

 not after the stomach is attacked, any food of a hard 

 nature may cause death, and it is always the best 

 plan to make a rule that hounds with distemper, or 

 for a week after convalescence, should be given only 

 soft food. I once lost a very good hound that was 

 well on the way to recovery by giving him some 

 scraps of fat that happened to contain small pieces 

 of bone. His appetite had returned, and he fed 

 greedily, but he was dead the next day. Although I 

 should hesitate intentionally to introduce distemper 

 into the kennel, a summer that passes without an 

 epidemic amongst the young hounds always leaves 

 me wondering and fearing for the future. An out- 

 break in the hunting season is a very serious matter, 

 and a hound that has never had the complaint is 

 liable to contract it at any moment. The fact of a 

 hound having had the disease does not render him 

 immune from a further bout, but it has been my 

 experience that the first inoculation leaves something 



