HEALTHY PARTURITION. 251 
destroy their young if they are at all interfered with, especially by 
strangers. While the process of labour is going on no food is 
required, unless it is delayed in an unnatural manner, when the 
necessary steps will be found described in the Third Book. After 
it is completed some lukewarm gruel, made with half milk and 
half water, should be given, and repeated at intervals of two or 
three hours. Nothing cold is to be allowed for the first two or 
three days, unless it is in the height of summer, when these pre- 
cautions are unnecessary, as the ordinary temperature is generally 
between 60° and 70° of Fahrenheit. If milk is not easily had, 
broth will do nearly as well, thickening it with oatmeal, which 
should be well boiled in it. This food is continued till the secre- 
tion of milk is fully established, when a more generous diet is 
gradually to be allowed, consisting of sloppy food, together with 
an allowance of meat somewhat greater than that to which she has 
been accustomed. This last is the best rule, for it will be found 
that no other useful one can be given; those bitches which have 
been previously accustomed to a flesh diet sinking away if they 
have not got it at this time, when the demands of the puppies for 
milk drain the system considerably; and those which have not 
been used to it being rendered feverish and dyspeptic if they have 
‘ an inordinate allowance of it. A bitch in good health, and neither 
over-reduced by starvation nor made too fat by excessive feeding, 
will rarely give any trouble at this time; but, in either of these 
conditions, it may happen that the secretion fails to be established. 
(For the proper remedies, see Parturition, in Book III.) From 
the first day the bitch should be encouraged to leave her puppies 
twice or thrice daily to empty herself, which some, in their exces- 
sive fondness for their new charge, are apt to neglect. When the 
milk is thoroughly established, they should be regularly exercised 
for an hour a day, which increases the secretion of milk, and 
indeed will often bring it on. After the second week bitches will 
always be delighted to leave their puppies for an hour or two at a 
time, and will exercise themselves if allowed to escape from them. 
The best food for a suckling bitch is strong broth, with a fair pro- 
portion of bread and flesh, or bread and milk, according to previous 
habits. 
