122 KENNEL DISEASES. 
CONSTIPATION. 
During the first days of a fever of any kind constipation is the rule, although 
in occasional instances diarrhcea occurs. The former is then purely a symp- 
tom, and the essential treatment but a part of that required by the existing 
disease. Herein, therefore, it will be considered only as an independent 
affection. 
It has a great variety of causes; and since many of them are identical with 
those that act in the same way among members of the human family, and with 
which all must be quite familiar, it is merely necessary to dwell on the influ- 
ences which generally give rise to the affection in dogs. 
The first appears in the diet when it consists largely of substances which 
are capable of being absorbed into the blood, and leave but little to pass out by 
the bowels. For example, a dog fed almost wholly on meat would not have near 
the usual amount of refuse; or, strictly speaking, he would naturally be costive, 
this term meaning that not only are the movements less frequent than natural, 
but of less amount. And the effect would be the same were he denied suffi- 
cient food. 
Another common cause is deprivation of sufficient pure, fresh drinking-water, 
in consequence of which the blood in some degree is lacking in this very essential 
constituent, the secretory action of the glands of the large intestines is less power- 
ful than it ought to be, and there is an over-dry state of the lining membrane 
throughout the bowels. As a consequence of all this the fecal matter is dryer 
and harder, and its expulsion more difficult. 
Lack of sufficient exercise is another cause of constipation ; indeed, lazy 
indoor pets are especially prone to the affection. But with them there are doubt- 
less other causes equally active, and notably neatness and restraint ; their outings 
being dependent upon the convenience and caprices of their owners rather than 
their own wants. And if nature’s promptings are continually disregarded or 
resisted, the inevitable result is a lessening of the sensibility of the lower bowel, 
also of its contractility and expulsive power ; and the constipation in correspond- 
ing degree becomes more pronounced and unconquerable. 
A uniform and unvaried diet, day after day, tends to impair the activity of 
the bowels. So, too, the habitual use of very coarse foods ; the bowels becoming 
fatigued, as it were, by the continued strain or effort made to expel so large a 
residue. 
It is only within the last decade that physicians have duly appreciated the 
possibilities of self-poisoning, and the frequency with which it occurs. For 
instance, food substances that are ordinarily easily and well disposed of, under 
certain conditions and in consequence of impairment of some one or more of the 
organs concerned in the process of digestion, may undergo deleterious changes, 
