602 



THE NEW BOOK OF THE DOG. 



motions may not be observed, three times a day. 

 if blood should apj.ear in the stools give the 

 following: Kino powder, i to lo grains; powder 

 ipecac, 'i to 3 grains; powdered opium ji to 

 2 grains. This may be made into a bolus with 

 any simple extract, and given three times a day. 



The food is of importance. The diet should 

 be changed ; the food requires to be of a non- 

 stimulating kind, no meat being allowed, but 

 milk and bread, sago, or arrowroot or rice, etc. 

 The drink either pure water, with a pinch or 

 two of chlorate and nitrate of potash in it, or 

 patent barley-water if he will take it. 



The dog's bed must be warm and clean, and 

 free from draughts, and, in all cases of diarrhcea, 

 one cannot lie too particular with the cleanliness 

 and disinfection of the kennels. 



Dislocation of Bones. — ]'/dr Bo.xes. 



The distinguishing sig-ns of fracture and dis- 

 location are as follows : — 



FR-^cturk. 



Dislocation. 



Deformity and pain. Deformity and pain. 



Crepitus or grating No crepitus. 



sound. No mobility. 



Mobility unnatural. Replaced only witli 



Easily replaced. force. 



Leg is shortened. .Aljout same length. 



Seat of injury any part Seat of injury only at 



of bone. a joint. 



Distemper. — .Although more than one hundred 

 )ears liave elapsed since this was first imported 

 to this country from France, a great amount of 

 misunderstanding still prevails among a large 

 section of dog-breeders regarding its true nature 

 and origin. The fact is, the disease came to us 

 with a bad name, for the French themselves 

 deemed it incurable. In this country the old- 

 fashioned plan of treatment was wont to be the 

 usual rough remedies — emetics, purgatives, the 

 seton, and the lancet. Failing in this, specifics 

 of all sorts were eagerly sought for and tried, 

 and are unfortunately still believed in to a very 

 great extent. 



Distemper has a certain course to run, and in 

 tills disease Nature seems to attempt the elimina- 

 tion of the poison through the secretions thrown 

 out by the naso-pharyngeal mucous membrane. 



Our chief difficulty in the treatment of dis- 

 temper lies in the complications thereof. We 

 may, and often do, have the organs of respiration 

 attacked ; we have sometimes congestion of the 

 liver, or mucous inflammation of the bile ducts, 

 or some lesion of the brain or nervous structures, 

 combined w-ith epilepsy, convulsions, or chorea. 

 Distemper is also often complicated with severe 

 disease of the bowels, and at times with an 

 affection of the eyes. 



Causes. — Whether it be tliat the distemper virus, 

 the poison seedling of the disease, really origin- 

 ates in the kennel, or is the result of contact of 

 one dog with another, or whether the poison floats 

 to the kennel on the wings of the wind, or is 



carried there on a shoe or the point of a walking- 

 stick, the following facts ought to be borne in 

 mind: (i) Anything that debilitates the body or 

 weakens the nervous system paves the way for 

 the distemper poison; (2) the healthier the dog 

 the more power does he possess to resist con- 

 tagion; (3) when the disease is epizootic, it can 

 often be kept at bay by proper attention to diet 

 and exercise, frccjucnt change of kennel straw, and 

 perfect cleanliness; (4) the predisposing causes 

 which have come more immediately under my 

 notice are debility, cold, damp, starvation, filthy 

 kennels, unwholesome food, impure air, and grief. 



y/^c Age at whicli Dogs take Distemper. — They 

 may take distemper at any age ; the most common 

 time of life is from the fifth till the eleventh or 

 twelfth month. 



Symptoius. — There is, first and foremost, a 

 licriod of latency or of incubation, in which there 

 is more or less of dulness and loss of appetite, 

 and this glides gradually into a state of feverish- 

 ness. The fever may be ushered in with chills 

 and shivering. The nose now becomes hot and 

 dry, the dog is restless and thirsty, and the con- 

 junctiva: of the eyes will be found to be consider- 

 ably injected. Sometimes the bowels are at first 

 constipated, but they are more usually irregular. 

 Sneezing will also be frec|uent. and in some cases 

 rough, dry and husky at first. The temperature 

 should be taken, and if there is a rise of two or 

 three degrees the case should be treated as dis- 

 temper, and not as a common cold. 



At the commencement there is but little exuda- 

 tion from the eyes and nose, but as the disease 

 advances this symptom will become more marked, 

 being- clear at first. So, too, will another symp- 

 tom which is partially diagnostic of the malady, 

 namely, increased heat of body, combined with a 

 rapid falling off in flesh, sometimes, indeed, pro- 

 ceeding quickly on to positive emaciation. 



As the disease creeps downwards and inwards 

 along the air-passages, the chest gets more and 

 more affected, the discharge of mucus and pus 

 from the nostrils more abundant, and the cough 

 loses its dry character, becoming moist. The dis- 

 charge from the eyes is simply mucus and pus, 

 but if not constantly dried away will gum the in- 

 flamed lids together ; that from the nostrils is not 

 only purulent, but often mixed with dark blood. 

 The appetite is now clean gone, and there is often 

 vomiting and occasional attacks of diarrha-a. 



Now in mild cases we may look for some abate- 

 ment of the symptoms about the fourteenth dav. 

 The fever gets less, inflammation decreases in the 

 mucous passages, and appetite is restored as one 

 of the first signs of returning health. More often, 

 however, the disease becomes complicated. 



Diagnosis. — The diagnostic symptoms are the 

 severe catarrh, combined not only with jever, but 

 speedv emaciation. 



Pneumonia, as we might easily imagine, is a 

 very likely complication, and a very dangerous 

 one. There is great distress in breathing, the 

 animal panting rapidly. The countenance is 



