6io THK BOOK oi< TUK DOG, 



and if good has been done after a week or two, to complete the cure small doses of nux vomica, 

 carefully watching its effects. Hot fomentations and stimulating liniments will also do good, 

 and in odd cases blistering. In some cases a seton over the spine might be tried. If the dog 

 has worms, they must be removed. In puppies, after the paralysis is gone, cod-liver oil will be 

 sufficient in itself to restore tone to the system, with good food and exercise. 



2. Chorea. 



Chorea, or St. Vitus's Dance as it is more frequently called, is a very common sequence to 

 distemper, especially if that disease has been badly treated. 



Pathology. The profession are not agreed as to what is the real cause of this extraordinary 

 disease. Post-mortem examinations have sometimes revealed alterations in the brain or spinal 

 cord, but just as often they have revealed nothing unusual. Some pathologists consider it a 

 blood disease ; it may be so, but we prefer including it among the diseases of the nervous system. 



Symptoms. Either the whole or only a part of the body is affected,, as the neck or one leg, 

 or both, or one side of the body alone. It is merely a form of irregular palsy, and probably it 

 depends greatly upon a lowered condition of the vital force, with impoverished blood. The 

 movements of the limbs consist in a sort of twitching or shaking motion, easily increased by 

 acting on the dog's mind, either through fear or kindness. There may be, and very often are, 

 spasmodic twitchings of one side of the face, or the whole head may shake up and down. 

 Sometimes, long after distemper is past and done with, and the dog well and strong, and able 

 to do a day's work, twitchings to a slight degree will continue. 



Treatment. If our view of the pathology of the disease be right, the treatment must 

 naturally resolve itself into trying in every way to improve the general health. We must give 

 nutritious diet and milk. We must give the dog as much out-door exercise, walking, running, 

 or romping, as he can take. And we may try the bucket bath every morning, only gently at 

 first lest we give too great a shock. 



Nux vomica may also be tried ; it sometimes does good. Sulphate of iron and arsenic often 

 does good, especially if combined with cod-liver oil, in chronic cases, be it remembered, and not 

 for some time after distemper. The nitrate of silver pill (one-sixteenth to half a grain made 

 into a pill with bread crumb and administered thrice a day) we have occasionally found service- 

 able. The bowels must be carefully attended to, but purge as seldom as possible. The 

 treatment of this disease is, on the whole, far from satisfactory. 



3. Fits and Epilepsy. 



A dog's nerves being altogether finely strung, he is very liable, among other complaints, 

 to have fits. 



Epilepsy is by no means an uncommon disorder, especially in young high-bred dogs. 

 Whether a dog before the fit comes on has any premonitory symptoms or not, similar to the 

 aura epileptica in the human being, we cannot be positive, but from the peculiar way the dog 

 stops suddenly for a moment, may-be in the middle of a run, stares a few seconds, as if in some 

 dread fear of impending evil, and then cries out and drops convulsed in every limb, we are 

 inclined to think he has. 



A fit may be either transitory or severe. In the former case the animal soon recovers 

 the use of his senses, and comes on again much the same. But more frequently, after 

 some spasmodic champing of the jaw, the dog falls down, stiff as death at first, and with 

 outstretched legs and arched back and neck (opist/wtaiws) ; then, in a few seconds, the convulsions 



