42 THE DOGS OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 



useful for round worms, as also are Indian pink and hellebore ; calomel 

 is unsafe in the highest degree, and powdered tin and glass nearly useless. 

 With the exception of Barbadoes tar, all the remedies enumerated for tape- 

 worm are efficacious, but more or less injurious when the constitution is at all 

 weakly. 



Areca nut is the remedy upon which reliance is now chiefly placed, its careful 

 and repeated exhibition being almost always sufficient to procure the expulsion of 

 the worms ; the dose of the freshly grated nut is 2 grains for each pound the dog 

 weighs, and this should be given freshly mixed in broth, or, if the dog refuses it, mixed 

 into a pill with a little jam or treacle ; it should be repeated every four or five days 

 for about four or five doses, when it may reasonably be hoped that a cure is effected, 

 but, if not, a second course will almost always succeed. For round worm santonine 

 is the most efficacious remedy, the full dose being 3grs. 



RICKETS AND ENLARGED JOINTS. 



When a puppy is unable to stand strongly on his legs, which are more or less 

 twisted and the joints enlarged, the condition is known by the name rickets, and if 

 the case is a bad one, he had better be destroyed. The disease is often produced by 

 bad management, but sometimes it is the result of breeding " in and in," or of 

 diseased parents. Phosphate of lime is the main agent in stiffening the skeleton, 

 and if food containing this salt is not afforded in sufficient quantity the bones are 

 of a gelatinous character, easily bending under the dog's weight, and consequently 

 rendered by nature too bulky for his future well-being as an animal fitted for the 

 chase. Many breeders like to see a puppy show larger joints than usual, and 

 consider them an indication of strength; but I am strongly of opinion that the 

 reverse is the case, and that the puppy which has them is not nearly so strong as 

 one whose limbs are grown more like those of an old dog. This, however, is a 

 disputed point, and I would never advise the rejection of a puppy because his joints 

 were all enlarged ; but, if one is much larger than the others, it is a sign of worse 

 disease than rickets, and more nearly allied to what, in human pathology, is called 

 scrofula. Sometimes the swellings disappear, and the disease is cured, but generally 

 these joints become more and more inflamed, and finally go on to form matter, and 

 to make the dog entirely lame. Little can be done for this in the way of treatment, 

 and the destruction of the puppy is the best plan of proceeding. In rickets, 

 however, a great change sometimes takes place, and the bending of the limbs or the 

 enlargement of the joints gradually disappears, leaving only some slight indication 

 of what has existed. Too often, however, the bone is weak and liable to 

 fracture ; and at the time when the dog is wanted for the sport to which it is 

 dedicated, the bone gives way, and the time and trouble occupied- in its rearing 

 are found to have been totally thrown away ; hence the necessity for good feeding 

 in the rearing of all young dogs, and too much c are can scarcely be bestowed upon 

 them. 



