ABC GUIDE TO CANINE AILMENTS. 



60 1 



to the general health. I£ fat, reduce diet and 

 avoid all starchy foods. If thin, feed well, exer- 

 cise, and give Virol. 



Deformities. — Can only be treated by an ex- 

 pert after careful examination and thought. 



Destroying Puppies. — Drowning, even in warm 

 water, is painful, because lingering. The best 

 plan is the ugliest. Take one up and dash with 

 great force on the stone floor. It is dead at once. 

 N.B. — \ever do so before the dam. 



Destroying Useless Dogs. — I have often coun- 

 selled the giving of morphia in sufficiently large 

 doses to cause sleep, and then carefully chloro- 

 forming. After all, the strongest prussic acid is 

 the most certain and the quickest, but a vet. only 

 should administer it. 



Diabetes. — Both that form called Mellitus or 

 sugary diabetes and Diabetes iiisipiiius are in- 

 curable ; the former, at all events. 



Sytnptoms. — The earliest symptom will be ex- 

 cessive diuresis, combined with inordinate thirst. 

 The coat is harsh and dry and staring", the bowels 

 constipated, the mouth hot and dry, and probably 

 foul. Soon emaciation comes on, and the poor 

 animal wastes rapidly away. Sometimes the ap- 

 petite fails, but more often it is voracious, especi- 

 ally with regard to flesh meat. The dog !■= 

 usually treated for worms, and the case made 

 worse. The disease is a very fatal one, and if 

 fairly set in, can seldom be kept from runninfj 

 its course onwards to death. Death may take 

 place from other and secondary diseases. 

 Tumours form in the lungs, the liver becomes 

 diseased, and the bowels seldom escape till the 

 last. 



Treatment. — Exceeding-ly unsatisfactory. I 

 have found the most benefit accrue from treating 

 canine patients in the same way as I do human 

 beings suffering similarly. I therefore do noi 

 hesitate to order the bran loaf if the animal is 

 worth the trouble, and forbid the use of potatoes, 

 rice, flour, oatmeal, and most vegetables, and 

 feed mostly on flesh, and occasionally beef-tea 

 and milk. Give from \i grain up to 3 grains of 

 opium (powdered), and the same quantity of 

 quinine in a bit of Castile soap, twice or thrice 

 daily. You may try Virol and nux vomica. 



Diarrhoea, or looseness of the bow'els, or purg- 

 ing, is a very common disease among dogs of all 

 ages and breeds. It is, nevertheless, more com- 

 mon among puppies about three or four months 

 old, and among dogs who have reached the age 

 of from seven to ten years. It is often symp- 

 tomatic of othei" ailments. 



Causes. — Very numerous. In weakly dogs ex- 

 posure alone will produce it. The weather, too, 

 has no doubt much to do with the production of 

 diarrhoea. In most kennels it is more common 

 in the months of July and August, although it 

 often comes on in the very dead of winter. Pup- 

 pies, if overfed, will often be seized with this 

 troublesome complaint. A healthy puppy hardly 

 ever knows when it has had enough, and it will, 

 moreover, stuff itself with all sorts of garbage; 



76 



acidity of the stomach follows, with vomiting of 

 the ingesta, and diarrhoea succeeds, brought on by 

 the acrid condition of the chyme, which finds its 

 way into the duodenum. This stuff would in 

 itself act as a purgative, but it does more, it 

 abnormally excites the secretions of the whole 

 alimentary canal, and a sort of sub-acute mucous 

 inflammation is set up. The liver, too, becomes 

 mixed up with the mischief, throws out a super- 

 abundance of bile, and thus aids in keeping up 

 the diarrhcea. 



-Among other causes, we find the eating of in- 

 digestible food, drinking foul or tainted water, 

 too much green food, raw paunches, foul kennels, 

 and damp, draughty kennels. 



Symptoms. — The purging is, of course, the 

 principal symptom, and the stools are either quite 

 liquid or semi-fluid, bilious-looking, dirty-brown 

 or clay-coloured, or mixed with slimy mucus. 

 In some cases they resemble dirty water. Some- 

 times, as already said, a little blood will be found 

 in the dejection, owing to congestion of the 

 mucous membrane from liver obstruction. In 

 case there be blood in the stools, a careful ex- 

 amination is always necessary in order to ascer- 

 tain the real state of the patient. Blood, it must 

 be remembered, might come from piles or polypi, 

 or it might be dysenteric, and proceed from ul- 

 ceration of the rectum and colon. In the simplest 

 form of diarrhoea, unless the disease continues for 

 a long time, there will not be much wasting, and 

 the appetite will generally remain good but 

 capricious. 



In bilious diarr-hoca, with large brown fluid stools 

 and complete loss of appetite, there is much thirst, 

 and in a few days the dog gets rather thin, 

 although nothing like so rapidly as in the emacia- 

 tion of distemper. 



The Treatment will, it need hardly be said, 

 depend upon the cause, but as it is generally 

 caused by the presence in the intestine of some 

 irritating matter, we can hardly err by adminis- 

 tering a small dose of castor-oil, combining with 

 it, if there be much pain — w-hich you can tell 

 by the animal's countenance — from 5 to 20 or 30 

 drops of laudanum, or of the solution of the 

 muriate of morphia. This in itself will often 

 suffice to cut short an attack. The oil is prefer- 

 able to rhubarb, but the latter may be tried — the 

 simple, not the compound powder — dose, from 

 10 grains to 2 drachms in bolus. 



If the diarrhcea should continue next day, pro- 

 ceed cautiously — remember there is no great 

 hurry, and a sudden check to diarrhoea is at times 

 dangerous — to administer dog doses of the aro- 

 matic chalk and opium powder, or give the follow- 

 ing medicine three times a day : Compound pow- 

 dered catechu, i grain to 10; powdered chalk 

 with opium, 3 grains to 30. Mix. If the diar- 

 rhoea still continues, good may accrue from a trial 

 of the following mixture : Laudanum, 5 to 30 

 drops; dilute sulphuric acid, 2 to 15 drops; in 

 camphor water. 



This after every liquid motion, or, if the 



