DYSPEPSIA. 551 



But whether fat or lean, the dog will be found to be lazy, dull, and listless, and probably 

 peevish and snappish indication of irritability of the brain and nervous centres. The dog 

 knows as well as any one that he is not well, and he cannot bear good wholesome food, 

 but will eat beef or steak with a will. Dyspeptic dogs often have an irritability of the skin, at 

 all events an unhealthy condition of coat. They suffer, too, from flatulence, sleep but badly, 

 and seem troubled with nightmares, and as to their bowels, they may be bound one day and 

 loose the next, and the stool itself is seldom a healthy one. 



Vomiting and retching, especially in the morning, are by no means uncommon in 

 dyspepsia. 



Treatment. If the case be one of severity, it will be better to begin the treatment by a 

 dose of opening medicine, and as the liver is frequently at fault, nothing better can be given 

 than a little podophyllin, nitrate of potash, and extract of taraxacum. 



R Podophyll gr ad gr. \. 



Pot. nitrat. ... ... gr. iij. ad gr. x. 



Extr. tarax. ... ... gr. iij. ad gr. xv. 



F' pil j. Misce. 



Lower the diet for a day or two, and give twice a day from five to fifteen grains of the 

 bicarbonate of potash in water, with from five to twenty grains of Gregory's powder. Give the 

 most easily digested food, and give it on the principle of little and often. A milk diet alone 

 may be tried. For chronic dyspepsia the treatment resolves itself very easily into the hygienic 

 and the medicinal, and you may expect very little benefit from the latter if you do not attend 

 to the former. 



When a dog is ill and out of condition, one must either proceed with determination and 

 energy to restore him to health, or let him run the risk of dying by some lingering illness, 

 than which latter it would be far kinder to shoot him. 



Begin the treatment of chronic indigestion, then, with a review of the dog's mode of life and 

 feeding, and change it all if there is a chance of doing good. Insist upon the necessity of his 

 being turned out first thing every morning, and of having a bath before his run and his breakfast, 

 unless there be any disease present which might seem to centra-indicate the use of the douche. 



Insist upon his being regularly washed, groomed, and kept sweet and clean, and housed in a 

 pure kennel not in a room, unless it be a large one, has no carpet, and has the window left fully 

 open every night likewise upon his having two hours' good romping or running exercise every day. 

 Then as to his food, let his breakfast be a light one, and his dinner abundant, and of good 

 substantial, digestible food. Give him a good proportion of flesh, not liver liver should never be 

 used for dogs unless now and then as a laxative. He is to have simply the two meals a day, and 

 nothing between them. Give no sugar, no dainties, and bones most sparingly. Have his dish 

 always filled with pure water, and washed out every morning, so that he may not swallow and 

 sicken on his own saliva. See that he has no disease of the mouth, and has his teeth cleaned. 



The late Mr. Mayhevv, who was wise in hygienic matters, albeit his modes of treatment were 

 sometimes questionable, deprecated the custom of starving dogs for one or two or even three days, 

 as was often done by ignorant practitioners in order to make the animals " come to their stomach," 

 as it was called. Such practice is but the cruellest and most ignorant barbarism, and the persons 

 who make use of it ought to be summoned by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. 



There are so many different varieties of dyspepsia, and the malady depends upon so many 

 different causes, that it is difficult to recommend drugs. One thing is certain, however ; medicine 



