712 SPOKADIC DISEASES. 



or clay-coloured and foetid. If the condition continues long, 

 the animal looses flesh, the appetite fails, and in some cases 

 ascites, or even farcy and glanders, may supervene. 



TREATMENT. 



When the purging arises from the presence of some offending 

 matter in the intestinal canal, its expulsion must be aided — and 

 this applies to all our patients — by a moderate dose of castor or 

 linseed oil, and the diet must be changed. Purging in the dog 

 is often induced by a too exclusively farinaceous diet, and it is 

 impossible to arrest it without an entire change of food. If the 

 purging arises from no apparent cause, or if the bowels do not 

 regain their normal condition after the action of the aperient 

 has subsided, it will be necessary to administer calmatives, such 

 as opium or mild astringents, such as chalk ; proceeding, how- 

 ever, very cautiously, as too sudden a check may induce com- 

 plications of a grave character. Boiled starch or flour gruel 

 may be allowed the animal to drink ; the food must be of the 

 sweetest and best kind, and given in moderate quantities. 



If there be much foetor the sulphite or hyposulphite of soda 

 may be very advantageously given dissolved in the drink, or 

 mixed with the food. If the animal be depressed and weak, 

 moderate and repeated doses of the spirits of nitrous ether will 

 afford relief, and promote the restoration of the bowels to their 

 natural condition. Should tliis treatment prove futile, the 

 more powerful astringents, such as catechu or kino, or, what has 

 proved more successful with me, the oil of turpentine and opium 

 beaten up with eggs, are to be administered. Some practitioners 

 recommend the mineral acids, such as the aromatic sulphuric 

 acid, these remedies having a tonic as well as an astringent 

 action upon the bowels. Warm clothing and perfect quietude 

 are necessary. 



