TREATMENT OF DISTEMPER. 375 



The diet should be carefully attended to, little or no food being- 

 required on the first four or six days, beyond weak broth or 

 gruel, no solid food from the first being permitted, and this 

 restriction being maintained till the dog is quite recovered. When 

 the state of exhaustion or prostration comes on, good strong 

 beef-tea should be given every three or four hours, and, if the 

 dog will not swallow it, force should be used ; a spoonful at a 

 time being given in the v/ay ordered for drenching at page 364. 

 At this time also port wine is often of service, thickened with 

 arrow-root, and given alternately with the beef-tea. For a dog 

 of average size the plan is to give a teacupful of beef-tea, 

 then, after two hours, the same quantity of arrow- root and wine ; 

 then, again after two hours, a dose of the tonic mixture, and 

 so on through the twenty-four hours. Perseverance in this 

 troublesome plan will generally be rewarded with success ; but, of 

 course, it is only a valuable dog which will reward it properly. 

 In less important animals the beef-tea may be provided, and if 

 it is not voluntarily swallowed the poor patient often dies for 

 want of the compulsion, so that humanity as well as self-interest 

 counsels the adoption of what often appears a harsh proceeding. 



No exercise, even of the most gentle kind, should be allowed, 

 it being found invariably to bring on a return of the disease, 

 whenever it is indulged in. Many a young dog has been sacri- 

 ficed to the mistaken kindness of his master, who has thought 

 that a "breath of fresh air" would do him good; and so it 

 would if taken in an easy carriage, at rest ; but the muscular 

 exertion necessary to procure it is highly injurious, and should 



