DISEASES. 69 



bandages, must be applied to keep them in their places until the "two ends are 

 joined. This is generally from three to four weeks in the case of a puppy, and 

 from a month to six weeks in a matured dog. If the case is not attended to 

 immediately after the accident the parts swell, and this swelling has to be 

 reduced before any attempt can be made to set the bones, and cold water or ice 

 applied to the swelling will easily reduce it. Before applying the splints it is 

 necessary to wind a bandage around the limb two or three times from the bottom 

 to the top, as this has the effect of preventing the splints from causing unneces- 

 sary irritation. The splints, which are best made of wood of about one-sixteenth 

 of an inch in thickness, of sufficient length to extend over the whole straight 

 surface of the limb, should be four in number, viz., one for the front of the leg, 

 one for the back and one for either sidle of it, and they should be just wide 

 enough to cover the part of the leg on which they are placed*, Before applying 

 them,, the inside of each should be smeared with hot pitch, cobbler's wax or some 

 such substance, so that they will adhere to the bandage and not slip, and then 

 another bandage, which should be of considerable length (about six yards long) 

 and one inch and a half to two inches wide, and which has been previously 

 soaked in a thick solution of gum or common starch, should be wound round 

 tin; limb from bottom to top. The object of the starch or gum solution is to give 

 additional support, which it does when it gets stiff and hardens. After the 

 operation the dog should be put into a quiet place a large hamper or crate does 

 very well- -so that he can rest and not move about; but it often happens that the 

 next day the part of the limb below the bandage is found to be swollen; if so the 

 latter should be loosened for a short time, but it must be tightened again when the 

 swelling subsides. 



The above treatment is of course only advised in the case of simple frac- 

 tures where an amateur may indulge his surgical skill. 



FATNESS EXCESSIVE. This should never exist in any dog and need not 

 providing it has been fed properly and sufficiently exercised. It is a hard thing to 

 do to reduce a dog, especially an old one, after it has been allowed to get into 

 this condition. However, some dogs are predisposed to obesity, and to put on fat 

 even when on a meagre diet; such being the case with a great many pugs and dif- 

 ferent species of spaniels. A certain amount of fat is not only a sign of health, 

 but also desirable, as it is the store of fuel that nature lays up to meet future 

 exigencies; but an excess of fat constitutes a morbid and diseased state of the body. 



A common effect of excessive fat is to set up skin disease, with discharge 

 therefrom, which is Nature's means of ridding the system of the superfluous 

 matter. Or the fat accumulates round vital organs, interfering with the animal's 

 respiration, making the breathing labored, wheezy, and asthamatical, painful to 

 the sufferer, which blows and pants on the slightest extra exertion, and most 

 distressing to the owner. In bitches not allowed to breed, fat accumulates round 

 the kidneys and ovaries; the heart also becomes surrounded with fat. and what 

 is called fatty infiltration or fatty degeneration ensues, which may cause sudden 

 death. 



CAUSES. It is, caused by confinement, lack of exercise and an over abundance 

 )f food of too rich a quality of fat-producing material. Castrating of dogs and 

 >aying of bitches and I don't believe it right to do either will cause accumu- 

 itions of adipose matter, as it takes from the dog one of the organs of secretion, 

 id all dogs that refuse sexual connection will become obese. All dogs should be 

 llowed Nature's privilege at least a few times during their lives, 



