604 THE NEW 
times a day with moderately hot water with great 
advantage. 
It is not judicious to wet long-haired dogs 
much, but short-haired may have the chest and 
throat well fomented several times a day, and well 
rubbed dry afterwards. Heat applied to the chests 
of long-haired dogs by means of a flat iron will 
also effect good. 
The following is an excellent tonic: Sulphate of 
quinine, 16 to 3 grains; powdered rhubarb, 2 to 
10 grains; extract of taraxacum, 3 to 20 grains; 
make a bolus. Thrice daily. 
During convalescence good food, Virol, Spratts’ 
invalid food and invalid biscuit, moderate exer- 
cise, fresh air, and protection from cold. These, 
with an occasional mild dose of castor oil or 
thubarb, are to be our sheet-anchors. 
During convalescence from distemper and from 
various other severe ailments, I find no better 
tonic than the tablets of Phosferine. One quarter 
of a tablet thrice daily, rolled in tissue paper, for 
a Toy dog, up to two tablets for a dog of Mastiff 
size. 
Dysentery. 
Symptoms.—Most troublesome and_ frequent 
stools, with great straining, the dejections are 
liquid, or liquid and scybalous, with mucus and 
more or less of blood. Frequent micturition, the 
water being scanty and high-coloured. The dog 
is usually dull and restless, and there is more 
or less of fever, with great thirst. If the anus be 
examined it will be found red, sore, and puffy. 
Treatment.—The animal should be properly 
housed, and well protected from damp and cold, 
which in dogs very often produce the disease. 
Give a dose of castor-oil with a few drops, accore- 
ing to the dog’s strength, of the liquid extract 
of opium; follow this up in about two hours with 
an enema or two of gruel, to assist its operation. 
Much good may be done by hot fomentations to 
the abdomen, and by linseed-meal poultices, in 
which a tablespoonful or two of mustard has been 
mixed, to the epigastrium, followed by a full dose 
of the liquid extract of opium. 
This may be followed by from 5 grains to 30 
of the trisnitrate of bismuth, in conjunction with 
from 38 grain to 2 grains of opium, thrice a day. 
Judicious diet is of great importance in the 
treatment of this disease. It must be very light, 
nutritious, and easily digestible, such as jellies, 
bread-and-milk, cream, eggs, patent barley, 
Bovril, with an allowance of wine if deemed 
necessary. The drink may be pure water, fre- 
quently changed, barley-water, or other demul- 
cent drinks. 
When the disease has become chronic, our 
principal object is to sustain the animal’s strength, 
and give the bowels all the rest we can. The 
mixture recommended for diarrhcza must be per- 
sisted in, and great foetor of the dejections indi- 
cates the use of some deodoriser, as the hyposul- 
phite of soda, with from 20 to 60 grains of wood 
cnarcoal, twice a day. 
Dyspepsia.— Usually called Indigestion. A dog 
BOOK 
OF EAE, DOG. 
is said to be off his feed. It is one of the com- 
monest of all complaints, and is the forerunner 
of many serious chronic ailments. In fact, it may 
be said to be a symptom more than an actual 
clisease. 
CauUsEs.—Improper or irregular feeding; over- 
feeding; want of exercise of a pleasant recreative 
kind; want of fresh air; food of a too dainty kind; 
general irregularity of management, and the foul 
air of kennels. 
Symptoms.—The dog does not appear to thrive, 
his appetite is either lost entirely or capricious; 
the eye is more injected than it should be, and the 
nose dry. There is generally some irritability of 
the skin, and he is out of condition altogether. 
Whether fat or lean, he will be found to be lazy, 
dull, and listless, and probably peevish and snap- 
pish—indication of irritability of the brain and 
nervous centres. The dog knows as well as any- 
one that he is not well, and he cannot bear good 
wholesome food, but may eat beef or steak with a 
will. Dogs suffer, too, from flatulence, sleep but 
badly, and seem troubled with nightmares; and as 
to their bowels, they may be bound one day and 
loose the next, and the stool itself is seldom a 
healthy one. Vomiting and retching, especially in 
the morning, are by no means uncommon in 
dyspepsia. 
Treatment.—Begin by giving a dose of opening 
medicine, such as castor oil and buckthorn syrup, 
from 2 drachms to 1 ounce of this mixture. 
Lower the diet for a day or two, and give 
twice a day from 5 to 15 grains of the bicarbonate 
of potash in water, with from 5 to 20 grains of 
Gregory’s powder. A milk diet alone may be 
tried. For chronic dyspepsia the treatment re- 
solves itself very easily into the hygienic and the 
medicinal, and you may expect very little benefit 
from the latter if you do not attend to the former. 
Begin the treatment of chronic indigestion, then, 
with a review of the dog’s mode of life and feed- 
ing, and change it all if there is a chance of doing 
good. Insist upon the necessity of his being 
turned out first thing every morning, and of hav- 
ing a good run before breakfast, unless there be 
any disease present which might seem to contra- 
indicate the use of the douche. 
Insist upon his being regularly washed, 
groomed, and kept sweet and clean, and housed 
in a pure kennel—not in a room, unless it be a 
large one, has no carpet, and has the window left 
fully open every night—likewise upon his having 
two hours’ good romping or running exercise 
every day. Then as to his food, let his breakfast 
be a light one, and his dinner abundant, and of 
good, substantial, digestible food. Give him a 
good proportion of flesh. He is to have simply 
the two meals a day, and nothing between them. 
Give no sugar, no dainties, and bones most spar- 
ingly. Have his dish always filled with pure 
water and washed out every morning, so that he 
may not swallow and sicken on his own saliva. 
See that he has no disease of the mouth, and has 
his teeth cleaned. 
