330 DOGS AND ALL ABOUT THEM 



or clay-coloured, or mixed with slimy mucus. In some cases they 

 resemble dirty water. Sometimes, as already said, a little blood will 

 be found in the dejection, owing to congestion of the mucous mem- 

 brane from liver obstruction. In case there be blood in the stools, 

 a careful examination is always necessary in order to ascertain the real 

 state of the patient. Blood, it must be remembered, might come 

 from piles or polypi, or it might be dysenteric, and proceed from ulcera- 

 tion of the rectum and colon. In the simplest form of diarrhoea, unless 

 the disease continues for a long time, there will not be much wasting, 

 and the appetite will generally remain good but capricious. 



In bilious diarrhoea, with large brown fluid stools and complete loss 

 of appetite, there is much thirst, and in a few days the dog gets rather 

 thin, although nothing like so rapidly as in the emaciation of distemper. 

 The Treatment will, it need hardly be said, depend upon the cause, 

 but as it is generally caused by the presence in the intestine of some 

 irritating matter, we can hardly err by administering a small dose 

 of castor oil, combining with it, if there be much pain which you can 

 tell by the animal's countenance from 5 to 20 or 30 drops of laudanum, 

 or of the solution of the muriate of morphia. This in itself will often 

 suffice to cut short an attack. The oil is preferable to rhubarb, but 

 the latter may be tried the simple, not the compound powderdose 

 from 10 grains to 2 drachms in bolus. 



If the diarrhoea should continue next day, proceed cautiously 

 remember there is no great hurry, and a sudden check to diarrhoea 

 is at times dangerous to administer dog doses of the aromatic chalk 

 and opium powder, or give the following medicine three times a day : 

 Compound powdered catechu, 1 grain to 10 ; powdered chalk with 

 opium, 3 grains to 30. Mix. If the diarrhoea still continues, good 

 may accrue from a trial of the following mixture : Laudanum, 5 to 30 

 drops ; dilute sulphuric acid, 2 to 15 drops ; in camphor water. 



This after every liquid motion, or, if the motions may not be ob- 

 served, three times a day. If blood should appear in the stools give 

 the following : Kino powder, 1 to 10 grains ; powder ipecac., J to 3 

 grains ; powdered opium $ to 2 grains. This may be made into a bolus 

 with any simple extract, and given three times a day. 



The food is of importance. The diet should be changed ; the food 

 requires to be of a non-stimulating kind, no meat being allowed, but 

 milk and bread, sago, or arrowroot or rice, etc. The drink either 

 pure water, with a pinch or two of chlorate and nitrate of potash in it, 

 or patent barley-water if the dog will take it. 



The bed must be warm and clean, and free from draughts, and, 

 in all cases of diarrhoea, one cannot be too particular with the cleanliness 

 and disinfection of the kennels. 



CONSTIPATION, 



more commonly called costiveness, is also a very common complaint. 

 It often occurs in the progress of other diseases, but is just as often a 

 separate ailment. 



Perhaps no complaint to which our canine friends are liable is less 

 understood by the non-professional dog doctor and by dog owners 

 themselves. Often caused by weakness in the coats of the intestine. 



