342 The Management and Diseases of the Dog, 



RICKETS (Rachitis). 



One of the most troublesome affections to which young 

 dogs are subject is the one termed " rickets." The larger 

 species, arid especially those highly bred, are chiefly liable 

 to this affection, but it is by no means so common in canine 

 pathology as many persons are led to believe. All bandy 

 or crooked-legged whelps are not rickety, any more than 

 are children similarly deformed from premature walking or 

 careless nursing. 



Rickets depends on, or consists in, a vitiated or abnormal 

 condition of bone structure — in other words, defective 

 nutrition ; there is a deficiency of earthy matter and a pre- 

 ponderance of animal matter, and the bones, from this cause 



FIG. 32. 



DOG WITH RICKETS. SKETCHED FROM LIFE. 



being soft, muscular action and weight bring about the 

 various deformities met with in this disease. The morbid 

 unhealthy state of system created by inter-breeding, has a 

 strong influence in the production of a rachitic diathesis. 

 The bones of the limbs, the fore ones more particularly, are 



