NATURE AND TREATMENT OF DISTEMPER. 201 
once or twice a day, according to the exigency of the case ; 
but care should be taken not to nauseate the stomach with 
too much medicine, as the appetite is occasionally so ca- 
pricious that it requires coaxing with dainty slop food. Some 
dogs, but more especially pets, prefer a mixture of tea and 
new milk, flavoured with sugar, which appears to them de- 
licious, and may be, for aught we know to the contrary, the 
most salutary kind of food that can be taken by the dog, 
during the subsidence of the severe inflammatory action and 
febrile affection constituting distemper. 
If early remedial measures are adopted in distemper, it is 
rather an unusual occurrence to meet with a case in which 
the mucous coat of the alimentary canal becomes secondarily 
attacked with inflammatory action. But cases occur in which 
functional disturbance of the digestive system supervenes, and 
impairment in the functions of digestion, biliary and other 
secretions, accompanied with diarrhoea, ensues, as the neces- 
sary consequence ; whilst epilepsy, paralysis, and those con- 
vulsions which occasionally pervade the muscular system, 
may be the inevitable result. However, it is by no means an 
unfrequent occurrence to meet with cases of distemper in 
which the mucous coat of the alimentary canal is the primary 
seat of disease. The dog being observed occasionally to eat 
grass, to be slightly off’ his feed, and rather out of spirits, may 
be regarded as the premonitory symptoms in these cases. But 
the most prominent diagnostics are — peculiar smell, dry nose, 
furred tongue, shrunken eyes, which are at first rather 
watery, but after a time become muco-purulent, unwillingness 
to move, loss of strength accompanied with rapid loss of 
flesh, reeling gait, and little or no appetite In some cases 
the bowels are constipated, and the voided excrement has 
mucus adhering to it ; in others they are lax, and approach 
to the peculiar diarrhoea. In the former state of the bowels 
Pil. Hydrarg. in combination with Ext. Hyoscyam., and from 
the sixth to half a grain of Pulv. Ipecac., followed by a dose 
of 01. Ricini, answers tolerably well; and, if given at an 
early stage of the disease, and due attention be paid to the 
dog’s food (which should be light, and easy of digestion), 
little or, perhaps, no more medical treatment will be required 
to restore the animal to a state of health. But if, instead of 
this favorable result, the morbid action and functions of the 
digestive system should progress, the pills may be given once 
a day, and continued for several days in succession, and if 
the patient should express abdominal pain, it may be relieved 
by a laxative emollient, as the Ol. Olivee Opt. cum Aqua, 
which may be rendered miscible either by an alkali or the yolk 
