222 KENNEL DISEASES. 
On returning to consciousness he makes several attempts to rise, reels for a 
few steps in a bewildered manner, then grows steadier, and soon thereafter is 
recovered or much improved. In rare cases, however, he appears delirious for a 
time, and rushes off wildly or toward those about him. 
Premature whelping brought about by blows, kicks, or other injuries to the 
abdomen, also deliveries at term by force,— the pups being too large, — are 
sometimes followed by puerperal tetanus, which is characterized by signs re- 
sembling somewhat those that appear during an ordinary attack of convulsions. 
But mistake should not be easy with the careful student, for in some respects 
the difference is sufficiently marked. 
The duration of a convulsion depends much on the cause. When the attack 
is epileptic, and other attacks like it have previously occurred, it is generally 
short, and soon entirely over. 
If occasioned by worms, it generally lasts five miuutes or longer; and the 
duration is about the same where the attacks are attributable to indigestion, 
debility, etc., or they are complications of disease, as distemper. When induced 
by strychnia or like-acting poisons, the convulsions usually keep up until death 
occurs, or is near. 
Convulsions occasioned by this poison are at first somewhat different from 
those due to other causes. For instance, the spasms are intermittent. That is, 
the muscles are convulsed, then they relax, and remain so for a few moments, 
when the convulsion is again on in all its intensity; and during the spasms the 
back is bowed. At first, also, and for a short time, during the intervals of rest, 
the sufferer often whines or cries when touched; and if a door is opened and a 
gust of wind strikes him, it will generally bring on a spasm. It is not long, 
however, before consciousness is entirely lost, and the convulsions thereafter 
differ but slightly if any from the common form. 
Notwithstanding the frequency of convulsions among dogs, and that the 
conditions and influences capable of exciting them are many and varied, the fact 
is plain that worms and poisons are the causes in much the largest proportion 
of cases—so large indeed that when a puppy is attacked it is fairly safe to 
assume that he has worms. The same may be said of the matured dog con- 
stantly kept in kennels. But when convulsions occur in dogs permitted to run 
at large, the chances are that they have been poisoned; and one may rightly act 
on that assumption after an attack has persisted for about ten minutes, for if it 
had been caused by worms, it would likely have ended or begun to subside. 
The chances of recovery from convulsions depend upon the causes which 
induce them. Death rarely occurs from such attacks alone, although possible 
from suffocation; and generally where the result is fatal, it is attributable to 
the condition or disease that caused the spasms. For instance, such an attack 
coming on during the course of distemper and terminating in death, the end 
would be due to that disease, not to the convulsions. So, too, where strychnia 
