AILMENTS AND ILLNESSES 47 



should be docked at five days old at latest. Happy 

 is the owner whose Poms or Pugs require no such 

 improvement ! The Schipperke owner has been es- 

 pecially commiserated or vituperated, as the case 

 might be, but as a matter of fact there is, in the hands 

 of a competent surgeon, used to operate on these and 

 other dogs, not one iota more risk or more pain or more 

 difficulty than in dealing with a terrier. Docking 

 should be done by a skilled veterinary surgeon, with 

 proper antiseptic precautions. His hands and the 

 strong scissors used are first made thoroughly antiseptic 

 by washing in carbolic or some other antiseptic solution, 

 and the operation can be done without the pup's losing 

 any blood at all to speak of. The wounds are dressed 

 with iodoform powder and tannic acid powder, mixed, 

 and in one hour the mother, who should be sent out for 

 a walk while the surgeon is in the house, will be admitted 

 to them, and they will be sucking as if nothing had 

 happened. Occasionally, owing to some idiosyncrasy 

 of the individual, a puppy may bleed after docking, 

 and therefore a careful watch must always be kept. If 

 there is any haemorrhage, bathe with very cold water 

 in which alum has been dissolved, and apply a styptic, 

 as tannic acid or perchloride of iron. But it is always 

 well to ask the operator to remain for an hour or so, 

 until all risk is over. The bloodvessels very quickly 

 seal up at their ends (to use untechnical language), 

 and the tongue of the mother, when re-admitted after 

 the necessary interval, will do no harm. Though 

 docking is neither dangerous nor cruel when properly 

 done on puppies so young that they have little or no 

 sensation in their undeveloped nerves, it is a barbarism 

 to let any ignorant person, as a groom or coachman, 

 do it ; and the dog owner who will not sacrifice her own 

 possible repugnance sufficiently to co-operate with the 

 skilled surgeon in seeing it properly done, at least owes 

 it as a duty to her dumb dependents to pay him to take 

 all reasonable care, and bring an assistant to hold them, 

 and stay until they are quite safe and comfortable. 



