COMPLICATIONS INCIDENT TO PARTURITION. 293 



fice, and tlie redness, heat, etc., continue, fomenting with, 

 hot vinegar and water, to which a little laudanum has been 

 added, may be useful. 



Should an abscess form, it must be freely opened with 

 the knife, or blood-poisoning may follow. The strength 

 must be maintained, the bowels kept free, and pain re- 

 lieved. 



Fissure of the nipple is the presence of a small crack, 

 which becomes extremely painful when the puppies suck. 



FIG. 20. I. Portion of mamma of a bitch when inactive (after Heidenhain). II. 

 During secretion of milk, a, 6, milk-globules ; c, d, e, colostrum-corpuscles ; 

 /, pale cells. 



To harden the nipples, they may be washed a couple of 

 days before the whelping with alcohol only the nipples, 

 not the glands themselves and should be carefully exam- 

 ined for such fissures, or any signs of tenderness. 



Occasionally a bitch from this cause will refuse to 

 nurse puppies altogether. 



Such a fissure had better be touched gently with nitrate 

 of silver, or somewhat diluted carbolic acid, on a earners- 

 hair brush, and then washed with the tannic-acid lotion 

 recommended on page 283. 



If the nipple can be kept from the puppies altogether 

 for a week, the prospects of cure are much better. In any 



