160 CANINE MEDICINE AND SURGERY 



reach 108 to 110 degrees Fahrenheit and continue 

 to rise for some time after death. 



The prognosis should be guarded. As a rule it 

 is slightly more favorable in the dog than in the 

 horse. 



Treatment. — Good nursing and the avoidance of 

 all excitement and noise are essential. The patient 

 should be placed in a darkened room and kept ab- 

 solutely quiet, as on account of the extreme irrita- 

 bility of the nervous reflexes the slightest sound or 

 movement may induce or aggravate the spasms. 



Nerve sedatives are the drugs indicated, in order 

 to endeavor to control the spasms, the most valu- 

 able being gelsemium and lobelia. In exceptionally 

 acute cases chloroform combined with H-M-C in 

 full doses must be used to induce complete anes- 

 thesia in order to relax the patient. It must be 

 remembered that to produce the desired effect te- 

 tanus patients require doses far in excess of those 

 usually administered, and that these drugs may be 

 pushed virith safety. Elimination per anum and 

 through the kidneys must be provided for, and 

 enemas of predigested milk or beef given to sustain 

 life, if the patient is unable to eat. 



Tetanus antitoxin is useless as a curative, but 

 as a prophylactic is of undoubted benefit if ad- 

 ministered before the appearance of symptoms. 



Anthreix 



Anthrax is an infective disease caused by the 

 Bacillus anthracis. Young dogs are extremely sus- 

 ceptible to anthrax, but mature animals appear to 

 develop a comparative immunity. Eating meat con- 

 taining anthrax germs is the usual cause of the 

 disease in the dog. On this account the animal 

 ordinarily suffers from the intestinal form of the 



