FOOD AND FEEDING 487 



and desirable. The dietary for constipation in horses should consist of 

 bran mashes twice a week with plenty of salt; roots and green fodder at 

 frequent intervals, combined with suitable exercise and appropriate drug 

 treatment. Dogs suffering from constipation may be given raw liver 

 twice a week, or may be put on an occasional or exclusive diet of one of 

 the commercial dog breads or biscuits. These are laxative and are in- 

 valuable in eczema of dogs. Avoid oatmeal, and feed bread, soup and 

 milk in acute eczema. If constipation is very obstinate, total abstinence 

 from all food, water excepted, for a time, followed by the use of lean 

 meat with salt and beef tea, is indicated till the bowels are emptied 

 manually or by enemata. The ration for diarrhea embraces the partial 

 restriction of water, which increases the bulk and fluidity of the intestinal 

 contents and so stimulates the movements of the bowels. If the diarrhea 

 is so severe as to endanger life, an abundance of pure or boiled water 

 should be allowed in order to compensate for the loss of fluid from the 

 blood. 



Theoretically, an albuminous diet is indicated in diarrhea because of 

 the loss from the blood and tissues, and because intestinal digestion is 

 disordered and starchy food would be undigested and cause fermentation, 

 etc. Practically, a certain amount of starchy food seems to be service- 

 able in the treatment of diarrhea. Horses and cattle should be given 

 cooked flour or barley gruel and roasted oatmeal and cracked oats. 

 Coarse foods, as bran and straw and green fodder, are not allowable. 

 Swine should be supplied with gruels of boiled milk and barley, flour or 

 oatmeal (strained). 



Fowl with diarrhea may be fed on boiled rice and given a few drops 

 of laudanum two or three times daily. Dogs and cats should have boiled 

 milk, boiled rice or strained rice gruel, cooked lean meat and crackers. 

 Beef juice and white of egg in water are of value. Young calves, with 

 diarrhea, should receive whey, broths and rice flour gruel. These dietaries 

 should be employed in conjunction with oiher measures, as the preliminary 

 use of a laxative, rest, the avoidance of too rich milk, quiet, and external 

 heat and drug treatment. Young suckling animals, as foals and calves, 

 may be fed on cooked and strained oatmeal or barley gruel made with 

 milk if the mother's milk does not agree. In severe attacks of gastro- 

 enteritis, or in gastric or intestinal ulceration with hemorrhage from the 

 stomach or bowels (after preliminary starving), the focd should be bland 

 and fluid, as soaked bread, oatmeal, barley or flour gruels, linseed tea 

 (made by boiling Lnseed in a muslin bag immersed in water), and small 

 quantities of green fodder for the larger animals ; whJe milk arid lime 

 water, white of egg and water, broths and beef juice are indicated for 

 carnivora. In the latter animals we may have to resort to predigested 

 food given by the mouth, or, if vomiting is pers'stent, by the rectum. 



The diet in cases of catarrhal jaundice should be easily digestible, 

 bland, and such as will not require much bile for its digestion. The larger 

 patients should be given gruels, steamed cracked oats, young and tender 

 green food, cooked potatoes, together with alkalies and other appropriate 

 remedies. Dogs are allowed milk and lime water, crackers, bread and 



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