FOOD AND FEEDING 659 



steamed cracked oats, young and tender green food, cooked 

 potatoes, together with alkalies and other appropriate 

 remedies. Dogs are allowed milk and lime water, crackers, 

 bread and cooked lean meat. Feeding in haemoglobiuaemia 

 or "black water" of horses must be restricted to the use of 

 gruels, green fodder and a little hay in the early stages of 

 the disorder. Food is usually withheld 12 hours before 

 surgical operations, and this, in addition to the administra- 

 tion of a cathartic, will prevent injury in casting the larger 

 animals, which might follow were the digestive tract over- 

 full. It will also lessen the danger of intestinal fermentation 

 and absorption of toxins from the bowels, which may occur 

 after operation owing to an enfeebled digestive action. If 

 dogs are starved before surgical operation, vomitiug is pre- 

 vented during or after etherization. Water alone may be 

 restricted to advantage in obesity, cardiac disease with 

 oedema, or in the treatment of chronic exudations, as in 

 hydrothorax. Water may be allowed in these conditions 

 only once daily, or even every other day ; ;'ud this treatment 

 may be combined with the use of saline cathartics in strong 

 animals. The specific gravity and density of the blood and 

 the tendency to absorption from the tissues and cavities is 

 increased. By the same process the quantity of blood is 

 diminished and the load put uj^on the heart is lessened, 

 both of which may prove beneficial in cardiac diseases. 



A full, or restorative diet should be especially rich in 

 protein. Generous feeding is distinctly in order in the treat- 

 ment of general debility, malnutrition, anaemia, weakness of 

 the digestive organs, convalescence from acute diseases and 

 in animals particularly sensitive to cold, or in those which 

 sweat easily. A. full diet is also useful in overworked 

 animals and in those subject to losses from increased secre- 

 tion, excretion, or exudation, as in chronic suppuration, 

 diarrhoea, albuminuria, ascites and oedema. A restorative 

 diet for herbivora includes grain, as corn, bran, oats and 

 cottonseed meal ; hay and grass, with occasionally milk and 

 eggs. For omnivora, corn, potatoes, blood, milk and soups. 



