CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 



45 



generated in dogs and cats by their means. 

 The poor animals, wildly resenting the annoy- 

 ance of these pests, hunt for them with teeth 

 and tongue, and, swallowing their enemy, may 

 also swallow a number of undeveloped tape- 

 worms, which in their larval or grub state are 

 secreted in the abdomen of the flea. Tape- 

 worms are said to undergo certain metamor- 

 phoses or transformations, and require to 

 pass through the body of some other creature 

 than the one they exist in in their mature 

 state of being. 



It is a great mistake to keep kittens 

 in heated rooms, and 

 worse still to allow 

 them to be close to a 

 fire by day and then to 

 let the room get cold 

 at night. An even 

 temperature, cold and 

 dry, is better than sud- 

 den changes ; cats and 

 kittens love warmth 

 and comfort, but, at 

 the same time, all ex- 

 tremes of heat and cold 

 are bad. Never neglect 

 the first symptoms of 

 illness ; note the signs, 

 and if you are not able 

 to dose the invalid 

 yourself send off a wire 



to some competent cat doctor describing the 

 form the indisposition has taken, and while 

 waiting for medicine no harm can be done by 

 giving as much carbonate of soda as will lie on 

 a threepenny-bit in a little water two or three 

 times daily. Salvo has lately advertised a 

 medicine which is said to be very valuable for 

 giving on the first signs of a cat or kitten 

 being out of sorts, and which, he says, will take 

 down fever, stop colds, and modify attacks of 

 bronchitis, pneumonia, etc. ; and for such 

 fragile little beings as kittens fanciers would do 

 well to keep this medicine by them. People 

 often say that their cats and kittens seem ill 

 or out of sorts, and allow this sort of thing to 

 go on quite calmly for a week or so, when one 



KITTB;NS BELONGING TO MISS BROMI.EV 



day they wake up to the fact that the poor 

 creature is very seriously ill, and they then 

 send off in a hurry for medicine which fre- 

 quently arrives too late ; and the sufferer may 

 be beyond all human aid. 



Double pneumonia, which is perhaps the 

 quickest and most fatal of all diseases, is not 

 so sudden but that it is ushered in by various 

 symptoms, beginning often a week before the 

 attack becomes acute. An animal will seem 

 cold, will creep near the fire, or sit in the fender, 

 mope about, refusing to play, sit in a hunch 

 with its back up, or is very sleepy and stupid ; 

 the fur is rough ; there 

 may be sickness, and 

 the evacuations are of 

 a bright yellow colour ; 

 perhaps it has not quite 

 finished its meals for a 

 few days ; and the nose 

 is hot and dry, and, if 

 taken up, the cat feels 

 hot and dry all over. 

 When there are several 

 of these symptoms, no 

 time should be lost in 

 administering the reme- 

 dies named above every 

 hour or two until suit- 

 able remedies can be 

 obtained ; but do not 

 rely upon them alone, 



or think if you give them persistently they 

 will pull the" animal through the illness, for 

 they will not, special remedies being needed 

 for special symptoms and for various stages 

 of disease. No two animals are exactly alike, 

 and the experienced cat doctor will prescribe 

 carefully for each individual cat in the same 

 way as a physician will give different prescrip- 

 tions to suit the needs of different patients. 



One thing should never be neglected, and this 

 is keeping up the strength from the first with 

 beef-tea, eggs and milk, Brand's Essence, 

 or animal Kreochyle a teaspoonful every 

 hour. As soon as an animal has refused 

 two meals, begin feeding with spoon, as it 

 will have so much more strength with which 



