AILMENTS AND THEIR TREATMENT 329 



ance and loss of appetite. The breath is short, inspirations painful, and 

 there is a rattling of mucus in chest or throat. The most prominent 

 symptom, perhaps, is the frequent cough. It is at first dry, ringing, 

 and evidently painful ; in a few days, however, or sooner, it softens, 

 and there is a discharge of frothy mucus with it, and, in the latter 

 stages, of pus and ropy mucus. 



Treatment Keep the patient in a comfortable, well-ventilated 

 apartment, with free access in and out if the weather be dry. Let the 

 bowels be freely acted upon to begin with, but no weakening discharge 

 from the bowels must be kept up. After the bowels have been moved 

 we should commence the exhibition of small doses of tartar emetic 

 with squills and opium thrice a day. If the cough is very troublesome, 

 give this mixture : Tincture of squills, 5 drops to 30 ; paregoric, 10 

 drops to 60 ; tartar emetic, one-sixteenth of a grain to 1 grain ; syrup 

 and water a sufficiency. Thrice daily. 



We may give a full dose of opium every night. In mild cases car- 

 bonate of ammonia may be tried ; it often does good, the dose being 

 from two grains to ten in camphor water, or even plain water. 



The chronic form of bronchitis will always yield, if the dog is young, 

 to careful feeding, moderate exercise, and the exhibition of cod-liver 

 oil with a mild iron tonic. The exercise, however, must be moderate, 

 and the dog kept from the water. A few drops to a teaspoonful of 

 paregoric, given at night, will do good, and the bowels should be kept 

 regular, and a simple laxative pill given now and then. 



DIARRHCEA, 



or looseness of the bowels, or purging, is a very common disease among 

 dogs of all ages and breeds. It is, nevertheless, more common among 

 puppies about three or four months old, and among dogs who have 

 reached the age of from seven to ten years. It is often symptomatic 

 of other ailments. 



Causes Very numerous. In weakly dogs exposure alone will 

 produce it. The weather, too, has no doubt much to do with the 

 production of diarrhoea. In most kennels it is more common in the 

 months of July and August, although it often comes on in the very dead 

 of winter. Puppies, if overfed, will often be seized with this trouble- 

 some complaint. A healthy puppy hardly ever knows when it has 

 had enough, and it will, moreover, stuff itself with all sorts of garbage ; 

 acidity of the stomach follows, with vomiting of the ingesta, and 

 diarrhoea succeeds, brought on by the acrid condition of the chyme, 

 which finds its way into the duodenum. This stuff would in itself act 

 as a purgative, but it does more, it abnormally excites the secretions 

 of the whole alimentary canal, and a sort of sub-acute mucous in- 

 flammation is set up. The liver, too, becomes mixed up with the 

 mischief, throws out a superabundance of bile, and thus aids in keeping 

 up the diarrhrea. 



Among other causes, we find the eating of indigestible food, drinking 

 foul or tainted water, too much green food, raw paunches, foul kennels, 

 and damp, draughty kennels. 



Symptoms The purging is, of course, the principal symptom, and the 

 stools are either quite liquid or semi-fluid, bilious-looking, dirty-brown 



