Q2 KENNEL DISEASES. 
of course the bowels have moved freely; and sufficient of the same to keep up 
an irritation may be retained even if there has been a brief period of diarrhcea. 
A dose of magnesia alone or even combined with rhubarb can scarcely do harm 
in any case, therefore, when the caretaker is in doubt whether or not a laxative is 
required, he will do well to assume the affirmative and give one. 
The bowels having been freed and the stomach allowed sufficient rest, the 
disturbing symptoms will speedily disappear if the trouble is merely acute indi- 
gestion. The diet may then be more generous, but for several days at least the 
foods should be bland and easily digestible. It will scarcely ever be necessary 
to attempt to stimulate the appetite, for unless there is some trouble beyond the 
digestive organs, it will improve as they become better able to dispose of food. 
CHRONIC INDIGESTION. 
This term is scarcely appropriate, and dyspepsia— which means difficult 
digestion — would be better, yet it is pardonable after the use of acute indigestion ; 
nor can it invite confusion, since non-professionals fully appreciate its real sig- 
nificance. 
Indigestion may have existed for several months without permanent change 
occurring in the stomach; yet if it has persisted for a long time, the walls of that 
organ are likely thinned, its lining membrane is more or less atrophied or wasted, 
and many of its tubules or follicles — structures which play such an important 
part in digestion — are shrunken and degenerated. These changes having taken 
place, the other organs intimately associated with the stomach, as the liver and 
intestines, are in corresponding degree enfeebled. 
The number of agencies which are capable of causing chronic indigestion in 
man are many and varied ; but such are the peculiarities of his digestive appa- 
ratus and constitution generally, the dog is able to successfully resist no small 
proportion of like agencies, and in him the trouble is usually produced by im- 
proper diet, under which head may be included food that in the first instance is 
unsuitable or rendered so in cooking, the habit of eating too much, or of eating 
only fairly moderately but at too short intervals or irregularly — as is the com- 
mon fault with house pets. Bad water can also be assigned asa cause. Another 
is found in the irritants which man uses as condiments ; namely, pungent spices, 
vinegar, and the like, which, while often injuriously affecting his own digestive 
processes, are a much more serious infliction on his dog, and especially if he be 
of delicately constituted breed. 
These are the common causes, but there are others that act indirectly; and 
while alone they might not be capable of producing the affection under consider- 
ation, they yet pave the way, as it were, and make its occurrence easy. One of the 
