ABC GUIDE TO CANINE AILMENTS. 



617 



Ulcers. — Wherever situated, must be treated on 

 general principles. Locally an antiseptic lotion 

 or, if very foul, a touch of blue-stone or lunar 

 caustic. Poultice if swelling around it, followed 

 by dressing of zinc ointment, perfect cleanliness, 

 and good strengthening diet, with or without 

 arsenic and iron. 



Urinary Organs. — Any ailment of these regions, 

 either in dog or in bitch, should be seen to and 

 treated by a skilled vet. His rules and directions, 

 I need hardly say, must be strictly followed out. 

 Sometimes painful tumours form about these 

 parts, and if they are left to themselves they 

 rapidly get worse. A stitch in time saves nine 

 and may save a life. 



Worms or Internal Parasites. — In other and 

 larger treatises on the ailments of dogs I have 

 gone fully into their helminthology. This would 

 serve no useful purpose here, but the life-story of 

 even a tape-worm is exceedingly interesting and 

 marvellous. 



We have, roughly speaking, two kinds of worms 

 to treat in the dog: (i) the round, and (2) the 

 tape. 



(i) Roimd-7i.'orms. — They are in shape and size 

 not unlike the garden worm, but harder, pale, 

 and pointed. 



Symptoms. — Sometimes these are alarming, for 

 the worm itself is occasionally seized wdth the 

 mania for foreign travel, and finds its way into 

 the throat or nostrils, causing the dog to become 

 perfectly furious, and inducing such pain and 

 agony that it may seem charity to end its life. 

 The worms may also crawl into the stomach, and 

 give rise to great irritation, but are usually dis- 

 lodged therefrom by the violence accompanving 

 the act of vomiting. 



Their usual habitat, however, is the small in- 

 testines, where they occasion great distress to their 

 host. The appetite is always depraved and 

 voracious. At times there is colic, with sickness 

 and perhaps vomiting, and the bowels are alter- 

 nately constipated or loose. The coat is harsh and 

 staring, there usually is short, dry cough from 

 refle.x irritation of the bronchial mucous mem- 

 brane, a bad-smelling breath, and emaciation or 

 at least considerable poverty of flesh. 



The disease is most common in puppies and 

 in young dogs. The appearance of the ascaris in 

 the dog's stools is, of course, the diagnostic 

 symptom. 



Treatment. — I have cured many cases with san- 

 tonin and areca-nut powder (betel-nut), dose 

 10 grains to 2 drachms; or turpentine, dose from 

 10 drops to ili drachms, beaten up with yolk of 

 egg. 



But areca-nut does better for tape-worm, so we 

 cannot do better than trust to pure santonin. The 

 dose is from i grain for a Toy up to 6 grains for 

 a Mastiff. Mix it with a little butter, and stick 

 it well back in the roof of the dog's mouth. He 

 must have fasted previously for twelve hours, and 

 had a dose of castor-oil the dav before. In four 

 or five hours after he has swallowed the santonin, 



78 



let him have a dose of either oli\-e-oil or decoction 

 of aloes. Dose, 2 drachms to 2 ounces or more. 

 Repeat the treatment in five days. Spratts' cure 

 may be safely depended on for worms.* 



The perfect cleanliness of the kennel is of para- 

 mount importance. 



The animal's general health requires looking 

 after, and he may be brought once more into good 

 condition by proper food and a course of vegetable 

 tonics. If wanted in show condition we have 

 Plasmon to fall back upon, and Burroughs and 

 Wellcome's extract of malt. 



There is a round-worm which at times infests 

 the dog's bladder, and may cause occlusion of the 

 urethra ; a whip-worm inhabiting the caecum ; 

 another may occupy a position in the mucous 

 membrane of the stomach; some infest the blood, 

 and others the eye. 



(2) Tape-worms. — There are several kinds, but 

 the treatment is the same in all cases. The com- 

 monest in the country is the Cucumerine. 



This is a tape-worm of about fifteen inches in 

 average length, although I have taken them from 

 Newfoundland pups fully thirty inches long. It is 

 a semi-transparent entozoon ; each segment is long 

 compared to its breadth, and narrowed at both 

 ends. Each joint has, when detached, an inde- 

 pendent sexual existence. 



The dog often becomes infested with this para- 

 site from eating sheeps' brains, and dogs thus 

 afflicted and allowed to roam at pleasure over 

 fields and hills where sheep are fed sow the seeds 

 of gid in our flocks to any extent. We know too 

 well the great use of Collie dogs to the shepherd 

 or grazier to advise that dogs should not be 

 employed as assistants, but surely it would be 

 to their owners' advantage to see that thev were 

 kept in a state of health and cleanliness. 



Treatment. — We ought to endeavour to prevent 

 as well as to cure. We should never allow our 

 dogs to eat the entrails of hares or rabbits. 

 Never allow them to be fed on raw sheep's in- 

 testines, nor the brains of sheep. Never permit 

 them to lounge around butchers' shops, nor eat 

 offal of any kind. Let their food be well cooked, 

 and their skins and kennels kept scrupulously 

 clean. Dogs that are used for sheep and cattle 

 ought, twice a year at least, to go under treatment 

 for the expulsion of worms, whether thev are in- 

 fested or not; an anthelmintic would make sure, 

 and could hardly hurt them. 



For the expulsion of tape-worms we depend 

 mostly on areca-nut. In order that the tape-worm 

 should receive the full benefit of the remedy, 

 we order a dose of castor-oil the day before in 

 the morning, and recommend no food to be given 

 that day except beef-tea or mutton broth. The 

 bowels are thus empty next morning, so that the 

 parasite cannot shelter itself anywhere, and is 

 therefore sure to be acted on by the drug. 



Infusion of cusco is sometimes used as an 



* Many dog owners swear by the preparation called Ruby, 

 which can be recommended as a cure for worms. — Ed. 



