320 THE MANAGEMENT AND DISEASES OF THE DOG. 



little can be done beyond avoiding excitement, applying 

 counter-irritation to the left side, and reducing by medicinal 

 agents the excessive action of the heart. — See " Heart Dis- 

 eases." 



RICKETS (Rachitis). 



One of the most troublesome affections to which young 

 dogs are subject, is the one termed " rickets." The larger 

 species, and especially those highly bred, are chiefly liable to 

 this afiection, but it is by no means so common in canine 

 pathology as many persons are led to believe. All bandy of 

 crooked-legged whelps are not rickety, any more than are 

 children similarly deformed from premature walking or care- 

 less nursing. 



Rickets depends on, or consists in, a vitiated or abnormal 



Fig. 32. 

 Dogs with Rickets. Sketched from Life. 



condition of bone structure — in other words, defective nutri- 

 tion ; there is a deficiency of earthy matter and a prepon- 

 derance of animal matter, and the bones from this cause 



