AILMENTS AND ILLNESSES 75 



Hysteria. There are, most certainly, hysterical dogs, 

 and their temperament is that of the habitual shiverer, 

 though very thin-skinned toys sometimes really shiver 

 from cold. A hysterical dog will bark itself quite out 

 of breath at the least disturbance, and shriek exactly 

 like its prototype human. Nature cannot be changed, 

 but a tonic sometimes does good. Excitability and ner- 

 vousness are characteristic of . some breeds. Poms are, 

 perhaps, the most excitable of small dogs, and pugs 

 certainly the least so. 



Obesity. Extreme fatness may be a disease in the 

 dog as in the human being, and in this case it is cruel 

 to accuse the poor creature of systematic over-eating, 

 as it is everyone's impulse to do. The bromides and 

 iodides are useful, but cannot be prescribed haphazard. 

 Thyroid gland tabloids may also be tried, beginning 

 with one once a day, and gradually creeping up to three 

 a day, according to the dog's size. Their effect on the 

 digestion is not always happy, so that the dog must 

 be watched to assure the owner of its toleration of 

 them. 



Poison. Not an ailment, but a subject which needs 

 a few words, is the taking of poison by toy dogs. Un- 

 luckily, there is always risk in a town, not only of the 

 wilful poisoner, who apparently exists, but of the in- 

 gestion of poisoned meat or bread and butter put for 

 rats or beetles, and afterwards thrown out. In ninety- 

 nine cases out of a hundred a poisoned dog has had 

 strychnine, this being the favourite drug of al] those 

 who employ poison at all. Arsenic is too slow, and 

 of other poisons, thank Providence ! the vulgar have 

 mostly no knowledge. The symptoms of strychnine 

 poisoning are, firstly, excitement the patient runs 

 about, and barks with a peculiar strident shriek. Ac- 

 cording to the quantity of the poison taken and the 

 quantity of food in the stomach at the time, this stage 

 occupies a longer or shorter period. Taken shortly 

 after a good meal, the poison seems less rapid in action 



