THE DOG-—DISEASES AND THEIR TREATMENT. 343 
and what general measures are needed. High feeding may cause cough; 
in which case the amount of food should be diminished, exercise taken, and 
antimonium carbonicum be administered. If the cough arises from going 
into the water, or being washed in warm water in winter, or being confined 
in a low, damp situation, give aconite and mercurius, the cough in such 
cases being harsh, hard, and attended with vomiting of tough mucus, 
ECZEMA.—SURFEIT. 
This results from a hereditary tendency, and is not contagious. It is 
often mistaken for mange, the remarks on which the reader should com- 
pare with the present ones. The hereditary germs of the disease will be 
developed by insufficient exercise, food that is unwholesome or given in too 
large or too small quantities, close lodgings, dirty, hard, or too luxurious 
bedding, or barley-straw bed, and flesh-food also encourages it. 
Symptoms.—Continual scratching; inflamed patches from which flows 
a fluid that mats the hair, and forms scabs which come off and leave the 
skin bare, inflamed, and discharging a thin, watery fluid; this fluid dries and 
forms scales, which the dog rubs, as he does the scabs, until pustular erup- 
tions form and present the appearance of general ulceration. The af- 
fected patches will oftenest be found on the back and inside of the thighs. 
In fat, over-fed animals the skin is robbed of the hair, becomes very thick 
in places and is deprived of feeling, so that pinching is agreeable instead of 
painful; the dog is a repulsive sight, lies around, dull, sleeping, scratching, 
biting and licking the sores; is wrinkled, chapped, ulcerated and of a foul 
smell, the skin discharging all the time a disgusting mattery fluid. The 
disease may be of a local character; for example, in sporting dogs it attacks 
the toes and feet especially, sometimes exclusively. Whatever its extent, 
however, its duration is uncertain, its cure difficult, and its return likely to 
occur, as may be expected in a hereditary disease. 
TREATMENT.—Rhus is needed for redness of skin; blotches; cracked 
skin; small yellowish pimples, which run together. Mercurius 1s invalua- 
ble for eruptions that become pustular after a while, or those which are 
once dry, then moist. For burning heat, great itching, scaly eruptions, 
pustules becoming ulcerous, and for advanced cases attended with diarrhea, 
weakness, loss of flesh and distended abdomen, give arsenicum. Insure 
absolute cleanliness. Wash the sores gently with tepid water and dry at 
once. Use a lotion of rhus when giving the same internally. Repeatedly 
change the bed and air the lodgings, providing a full supply of fresh water, 
and giving free, moderate open-air exercise. Be careful in the diet. 
Allow no flesh at all, except perhaps from one ounce to two, according to 
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