ABC GUIDE TO CANINE AILMENTS. 



605 



The following is a safe and simple tonic pill, 

 one to be given twice daily : Sulphate of quinine, 

 1 A to 3 grains; sulphate of iron, l /z to 6 grains; 

 extract of taraxacum, 3 grains to 10. Make into 

 a bolus. 



Dyspepsia, Acute. Inflammation of the 

 stomach is a very fatal and very painful disease 

 in the dog, though happily somewhat rare. It 

 is supposed by most authorities to be a disorder 

 that may originate as an idiopathic or primary 

 disease, but it is more often the result of an irri- 

 tant poison, or the administration by ignorant 

 kennel men of excessive doses of tartar emetic. 

 It is doubtful, however, whether it ever presents 

 itself as a primary disease. But supposing a case 

 of acute gastritis to come before a veterinary 

 practitioner, and granting that a chemical ex- 

 amination or analysis of the matter vomited may 

 prove that the animal has swallowed no metallic 

 poison or any well-known vegetable poison, how 

 can he be sure that the symptoms have not been 

 brought on by some animal irritant, or even some 

 decomposed vegetable matter which the dog may 

 have eaten ? 



Symptoms. There is vomiting, great thirst, 

 high fever; the animal stretches himself on his 

 belly in the very coolest corner he can find, pant- 

 ing, and in great pain. Enteritis generally ac- 

 companies bad cases; the ears are cold, and the 

 limbs as well. Dark grumous blood may be 

 vomited, or pure blood itself, from the rupture 

 of some artery. And thus the poor dog may 

 linger for some days in a most pitiful condition. 

 Finally he is convulsed and dies, or coma puts 

 a milder termination to his sufferings. 



Treatment of milder forms of gastritis. 

 Recipe: Dilute hydrocyanic acid, i to 10 drops; 

 laudanum, 5 to 25 drops; solution of chloroform, 

 2 drachms to i ounce. This to be given as a 

 draught. 



The warm bath, and hot fomentations after- 

 wards to the region of the stomach, may give 

 relief, and the strength must be kept up by 

 nutritive enemata beef-tea mixed in cream. In 

 simple cases 3 to 30 grains of the trisnitrate of 

 bismuth may be given, a quarter of an hour before 

 each meal. This is good also in irritative dys- 

 pepsia, mixed with a little of the bicarbonate of 

 soda. 



Ear in Health. They are only quacks who, 

 careless of what sufferings they may entail on 

 poor dogs or human beings either, pretend that 

 they can cure almost any ear trouble by nostrums 

 poured into it. If the deafness and other ear 

 diseases depended only upon an accumulation of 

 wax in the tube of the outer ear or even a slight 

 inflammation of that orifice, there might be some 

 little sense in such applications. But the deaf- 

 ness is more deeply seated, and may be caused by 

 disease of the nerves, which proceed from the brain 

 itself. The internal ear, or real organ or machinery 

 of hearing, is never reached by the quack's lotions. 

 They could only reach it if the drum was pierced 

 by disease, and then they would produce such 



terrible suffering that the dog would become 

 maniacal. The orifice of the ear is a short tube, 

 one end open to the outside, the other closed by a 

 thin membrane called the drum, which separates 

 it from the inner ear. Across this latter stretches 

 a chain of beautifully arranged bones of the tini- 

 est size, three links in all, each link a bone 

 tht- malleus, or hammer; the incus, or anvil; and 

 the stapes, or stirrup, so named from their resem- 

 blance in shape to these things. The drum is 

 connected by means of this chain with a delicate 

 membrane in which the minute branches of the 

 nerves of hearing are spread. From the back of 

 the throat to the internal ear is a tube called the 

 Eustachian, which supplies it with air, and if 

 this tube is blocked, as it is sometimes in catarrhal 

 inflammation, deafness is the result. The reader 

 may see, therefore, how little likelihood there is 

 of any outward application affecting the hearing. 

 But these lotions of the quack may, on the con- 

 trary, do incalculable harm by hardening or in- 

 flaming the drum. 



Ear : External Canker. A scurfy condition of 

 the flap, the edge of which may be sore, ragged, 

 and scaly. The flap also becomes thickened. 

 Such a thing ought to be seen to in time. 



When the ear is buried in long hair, probably 

 matted, have the latter removed with the scissors. 

 Perfect cleanliness is the next thing to secure, and 

 for this reason have the ear well, though gently, 

 washed with warm water and a little mild soap. 

 Then apply the ointment mentioned below. It 

 may be necessary to touch the sores occasionally 

 with blue-stone, or 2o-grain solution of nitrate of 

 silver. 



The canker-cap must imperatively be worn, and 

 in order to give the ears a better chance of heal- 

 ing, we may fold them back over the head and 

 bind them in that position. 



The strictest regulations as to diet and exercise 

 must be enforced, but the animal must be kept 

 from the water, and not permitted to overheat 

 himself. 



As to the habit of cropping, adopted by old vets, 

 and kennelmcn of the present day, I never re- 

 commend it, though an old-fashioned Dane cr 

 Bull Terrier looked smart cropped. 



Abscesses of the flap of the ear are by no means 

 uncommon, and cause great pain and irritation. 

 Sometimes these are accidental, being caused by 

 blows. They often go away of their own accord, 

 stimulated only by the use of blue ointment. If 

 they do not, they must be opened by a free in- 

 cision, for if only pricked the matter will form 

 again, while setons do more harm than good. 

 The incision, then, must be free, and afterwards 

 a little lint is to be inserted, wetted in water, to 

 which a few drops of carbolic acid solution have 

 been added. The cap may be worn, and the ear 

 turned back, and as soon as suppuration is formed, 

 the wound will heal if kept perfectly clean and 

 softened by the zinc ointment or Xam-Buk. 



Ear : Inflammation of the Flap. This may be 

 merely accidental, as when a long-haired dog gets 



