Part 2

_Treatment_: Remove the cause. If it arises from the condition of the teeth, remove the tartar by scaling, and clean mouth and teeth twice daily, using a small soft tooth-brush and the following wash:—

_Recipe_:

Salol, 1 drachm. Tr. Myrrh, 2 drachms. Spirits of Wine, 10 drachms. Formalin, 1 drachm.

Mix.

Half a teaspoonful to be added to half a tumblerful tepid water. If the breath remains offensive after the mouth has been made healthy, give a pill three times a day containing from a quarter[1] to two grains of permanganate of potash, or twice a day give from two to ten grains of salol.[1]

When the condition is the result of some disease affecting the lungs, suitable remedies for this must be administered; or if the result of an offensive discharge from the nose, a dessertspoonful to two tablespoonfuls[1] of the following lotion should be syringed up each nostril once or twice a day:—

_Recipe_:

Chinosol, 6 grains. Water to 8 ounces.

Mix.

=Balanitis=:

_Symptoms_: Purulent discharges from prepuce.

_Treatment_: After thoroughly cleaning prepuce out with tepid water pumped into sac with syringe, syringe twice a day into the passage from one to four[1] tablespoonfuls following lotion:—

_Recipe_:

Chinosol, 6 grains. Water to 8 ounces.

Mix.

Sometimes this complaint is very obstinate. In such cases the base of the penis should be exposed and painted with a four per cent. solution of nitrate silver. Repeat twice a week.

=Baldness=:

_See_ ALOPECIA.

=Bed-sores=:

_Symptoms_: Dogs, after severe illness, when they have become very thin, often have large, unhealthy-looking, offensive-smelling wounds, or ulcers form on the hips, points of the buttocks, shoulder, and other parts.

_Treatment_: Well foment and thoroughly clean parts with a warm saturated solution of boracic acid or Pearson’s fluid diluted sixty times with warm water two or three times daily. Gently dry and then freely dust over with powdered boracic acid or amyloform powder. Take pressure off wound by encircling it with a ring of thick felt fixed with some adhesive material. In obstinate cases powdered iodoform may be used to dust (sparingly) over wound instead of boracic.

_Baths_: A tepid bath should register about 90 deg. F., a warm bath 100 deg. F. A soothing bath for an irritable and red skin can be made by adding to three gallons of tepid water, one ounce of borax, eight tablespoonfuls of fine oatmeal, in which the dog should be immersed for ten or fifteen minutes, and repeated two or three times a week. When the dog is dirty he may be cleaned whilst in the bath by rubbing the yolks of three or four eggs into the skin and coat, and then rinsing off with the oatmeal water.

A suitable bath for the treatment of eczema and to destroy insects on the skin, may be made by adding three tablespoonfuls of Pearson’s disinfectant fluid to a gallon of tepid water.

_Sulphur Baths_: A valuable remedy for skin diseases. Are made by dissolving one ounce of sulphurated potash in a pail of tepid water, in which the dog may be immersed for ten minutes.

=Biliousness=:

_Symptoms_: Severe vomiting, great thirst, occasionally diarrhœa, refusal of food. In bad cases the skin, eyes, and mouth turn yellowish.

_Treatment_: First give dose castor oil, say half teaspoonful to two tablespoonfuls,[1] with from two[1] to ten drops of laudanum, or a pill containing from a quarter to two grains of calomel, with the eighth to one grain of powdered opium. Later, if sickness is persistent, give from three to ten grains of carbonate of bismuth shaken dry on the tongue, or the following mixture may be tried:—

_Recipe_:

Diluted Hydrocyanic Acid, 20 drops. Liquor Bismuth, 1 ounce. Water to 6 ounces.

From one[1] teaspoonful to a tablespoonful every three or four hours.

To keep strength up give occasionally every hour, from a quarter[1] to a teaspoonful Brand’s beef essence, allow Vichy water and milk in equal parts to drink—no plain water—but the patient may have some ice to lick. When sickness is very persistent, the stomach should be given complete rest for about twelve hours, and the dog’s strength kept up during this time with peptonised meat suppositories (B and W), one being given every three or four hours. When these cannot be obtained, an enema of peptonised milk with from five[1] drops to one teaspoonful of brandy, may be given every three hours. Hot linseed meal poultices to the stomach are sometimes useful.

=Bites=:

A deep punctured wound caused by the bite of a dog, if allowed to scab over, usually results in the formation of an abscess; so the wound should be kept open for a few days by being fomented often with a warm solution of boracic acid lotion. When not fomenting, the wound should be covered over with a piece of lint (once doubled) soaked in a solution of boracic lotion; this should be entirely covered with a piece of oil silk, and a bandage applied. This treatment may be continued until the wound has healed. When the wound consists of a tear of the skin, after thoroughly cleansing the parts with some disinfectant—as a solution of Pearson’s fluid—the wound may be sewn up, a few layers of carbolic gauze laid over the wound, and a bandage applied. It is best to renew the dressing daily in these cases, as there is always a danger of suppuration, and if such occurs, two or three stitches should be removed at the lowest part to allow the pus to escape. After an abscess has formed, the parts require keeping very clean, and should be kept covered with carbolic or other gauze. A dog should not be allowed to lick a wound.

=Bladder, Irritable=:

_Symptoms_: Constantly straining to pass water even when indoors; urine high-coloured and often cloudy, strong smelling. Blood may be mixed with the water, or come in drops after the passing of water. These symptoms must not be confounded with those the result of a cystic calculus (stone), for in these latter cases the dog strains continuously, and if a small calculus happens to pass from the bladder into the passage (urethra), it generally becomes fixed in the canal just behind the bone in the penis, and the dog is unable to micturate at all, or only in drops. When a dog is seen to be frequently straining, he requires careful watching to see the kind of urine passed, or whether any is being passed at all.

_Treatment_: If there is much pain, give every three or four hours from two[1] to fifteen drops of tincture of hyoscyamus in water; if there is not much pain, a course of hyposulphite of soda is all that is required, and should be continued for some time.

_Dose_: From three grains to half a drachm[1] in water, and a careful diet of milk, with bread or Spratt’s biscuits, or Force, milk puddings, etc. Milk and barley water may be given to drink. When the irritation is due to calculus urgent surgical assistance is required.

=Bladder, Paralysis of=:

_Symptoms_: The dog at first is unable to pass water, later it dribbles from him. May be the result of general paralysis caused by injury to spine, or brain, or to the abdomen; it may also be the result of stone in the bladder.

It sometimes occurs in dogs of very clean habits as the result of being shut up for a long time, and the bladder becomes over distended, and can be felt in the back part of the abdomen as a large ball.

_Treatment_: Relieve the bladder. If there is no mechanical obstruction as from a stone in the canal, the bladder can be emptied by pressure on the walls of the abdomen over the seat of the bladder; if this fails, a catheter must be passed.

Speaking of catheters, for very small dogs 0.0 size is required. For terriers, No. 1 size in diameter, and about fourteen or sixteen inches long. For dogs size of collies, etc., No. 2 size, and about eighteen or twenty inches long, and for larger dogs one about four inches longer is necessary. If there is a small stone or gravel in the passage, there is sometimes difficulty in passing the catheter, but with care a passage may generally be made with a fine grooved silver probe.

When there is an absence of mechanical obstruction and inflammation in these cases, to improve the tone of the bladder give from one to seven[1] minims of tincture nux vomica three times a day, in water and after food. In chronic cases iron (ammoniated citrate) may be added to the medicine. Nux vomica must not be given when there are any signs of convulsions.

=Bleeding, From Stomach=:

_Symptoms_: Vomiting of blood, sometimes of a bright red colour, at other times dark red or venous blood; and when it has been retained in the stomach some time, it comes up liquid of a coffee colour.

_Treatment_: Give the following mixture:—

_Recipe_:

Tincture Thalaspi, 24 drops. Liquor Bismuth, ½ ounce. Water to 3 ounces.

_Doses_: One teaspoonful to a tablespoonful[1] every three or four hours.

_Diet_: Milk, also Benger’s food with milk, kreochyle with Vichy water. Brand’s essence and milk, either peptonised or plain, is the best food. When sickness is very severe, stomach should be rested for twenty-four hours, and the dog fed with nutritive enema, say from one[1] to six tablespoonfuls peptonised milk every three hours alternately, with a beef suppository (B and W). These may be purchased in different sizes.

=Blindness, Amaurosis=:

_Symptoms_: Eyes clear and bright, pupils large, with a greenish look. Loss of colour to eye—as the iris is so dilated, cannot be seen or scarcely seen. Sometimes follows distemper; a result of fits; great excitement or exertion, as violent vomiting. Pupil will not contract when exposed to light, except very strong sunlight.

_Treatment_: Disease seldom curable. Try following eye drops:—

_Recipe_:

Sulphate Eserine, ½ grain. Water to 1 ounce.

One drop to be placed in the eye three or four times a day. Give one[1] to seven drops tincture nux vomica three times a day in water after food. Blisters or seton to back of neck can be tried; also galvanism.

=Blisters=:

Collection of blood, water, or serum under first skin; result of a burn as a rule.

_Treatment_: Cut blister, squeeze out contents, apply boracic ointment on lint, and bandage.

=Blisters, To Apply=:

It is somewhat difficult to raise a good blister on a dog—much more so than on a horse, or even a person; but a fluid called liquor epipasticus will do so if properly applied. The hair should at first be cut off closely from the part where it is intended to apply the blister; the skin should be then thoroughly washed with warm water and soap, and afterwards well dried. Then the blister should be rubbed on with a piece of wool tied around a stick for about five minutes. The person applying the blister should be careful not to get any of it on his fingers, as it may make them very sore. Over the blister put a piece of either grease-proof paper or brown paper, and apply a bandage. This blister is very poisonous, and the dog must not be allowed to lick it on any account. The next day, if the skin is not well blistered, rub in for two or three minutes a little red blister ointment. Forty-eight hours after the first application of the blister it may be washed off, the parts carefully dried with a soft cloth, and then anointed with boracic ointment.

=Blood Poisoning=:

_Symptoms_: Rise of temperature, 104 deg. F. and over; shivering, vomiting, congested eye, thirst. If complaint goes on for some time, ulcers form in mouth, and breath becomes very fœtid. Often caused by retention of a dead puppy, or urine, diseased kidneys, also inflammation of womb (metritis) from bitch taking cold when on heat. May follow severe and deep bites.

_Treatment_: Remove the cause. If an abscess, open freely at once, evacuate contents, and syringe cavity out with solution Condy’s Fluid, one teaspoonful to half-pint water. Give large dose salicylate quinine one[1] to ten grains; repeat in six hours; give brandy somewhat freely. If patient cold, apply hot-water bottle to back and feet.

=Boils=:

Small red swellings, which suppurate and break. Situated, as a rule, on inside of thighs, arms, and belly, but may appear all over dog. Sometimes seen in cases of distemper; also seen in young puppies, especially on inside of thighs and belly, when suffering from worms.

_Treatment_: If accompanied by distemper, no special treatment required; if very painful and sore, anoint with Balsam Peru ointment. When affecting young puppies, give worm medicine; afterwards small doses of chemical food.

=Bowels, Inflammation of, Colic=:

_Symptoms_: Pain in abdomen; patient restless, and, if a puppy, whines and cries; generally diarrhœa, and quantity mucus passed; may be constipation; vomiting a frequent symptom. Seldom a rise of temperature without case very acute, though the pulse is often much quickened. Often caused by worms and indigestion, and may be result of chill.

_Treatment_: As a rule, a dose of castor oil, say half a teaspoonful[1] to two or more tablespoonfuls, with from two[1] to fifteen drops of laudanum, is the best treatment at first. After this has worked off, if pain continues, give following mixture:—

_Recipe_:

Laudanum, 1 drachm. Chloric Ether, 2 drachms. Liquor Bismuth, 4 drachms. Water to 3 ounces.

_Dose_: One[1] teaspoonful to a tablespoonful every two, three, or four hours until pain relieved. Apply hot salt bags continuously to belly. Later, worms should be removed by suitable remedies.

=Bowels, Intussusception of=:

_Symptoms_: This is a disease that more often attacks young puppies than adult dogs. It may be caused by worms; it also results from eating stones and other hard substances, and may be due to colic as a result of indigestion. The pain is very acute, the dog constantly crying and whining. During the early stages there may be vomiting; there is also diarrhœa, and the passing of mucus tinged with blood. If the abdomen be manipulated with the fingers, a long hard swelling will be felt, due to one portion of the bowel telescoping into another.

_Treatment_: Give fairly large doses of laudanum, say for a fox terrier puppy two or three months old, five drops every four hours with a dessertspoonful of water. Give nothing but liquid food as milk or Benger’s food, or beef tea. If no better in twenty-four hours, the puppy should be relieved by operation. If the operation is postponed too long, it is as a rule not successful, but when done during the early stages there is every chance of effecting a cure, and giving the puppy immediate relief. Besides, the operation, when done early, is much easier, for then, as a rule, the intussusception can be reduced by pulling on the bowel.

After such an operation no food should be given for twenty-four hours; and then liquids only for a few days.

=Breast, Inflammation of=:

_Symptoms_: Gland is swollen hard, red and very painful. There is a rise of temperature which shows pus is forming. After two or three days the swelling becomes softer, points, and breaks and freely discharges.

_Treatment_: Hot poppy-head fomentations, and the application of hot linseed meal poultices frequently changed. Lance abscess directly soft. Give aperient medicine. Sometimes it is necessary to remove puppies, when milk should be drawn off two or three times a day.

=Breathing, Difficulty in Bulldogs=:

Many bulldogs, especially those with a very short face, have a chronic difficulty in breathing. Each inspiration is performed with an effort; the sides heaving, and the dog is constantly bringing up quantities of white frothy mucus, especially when first let out.

In some instances, especially of toy bulldogs, the inspirations are so difficult that if a dog gets much excited it may fall over partly asphyxiated. In these cases the heart is always weak.

_Treatment_: The principal thing to do in these cases is to give a diet composed entirely of raw meat, cut up in small pieces, given three times a day, so as not to overload the stomach at any time. Also after each meal give from one[1] to seven drops of tincture nux vomica, according to the size of the dog, in a little water, immediately after food, or for a change, from three[1] to six grains of lacto-peptin.

In some cases I have attempted to relieve these distressing symptoms by an operation, that is by removing the false palate, but it has not been altogether a success, though I have sometimes thought it has given some relief. Of course an operation of this kind must be done under the influence of chloroform.

=Bronchitis=:

_Symptoms_: Severe and frequent coughing, difficult breathing, rattling of phlegm in windpipe. In bad cases, dog unable to lie down.

_Treatment_: Place in fairly warm room, and keep a kettle going to moisten air. When breathing very difficult and the throat seems full of phlegm, give an emetic.

_Recipe_:

Hydrochlorate of Apomorphia, ½ grain. Water to 1 ounce.

_Dose_: Half[1] to two teaspoonfuls; repeat in one hour if it has not caused vomiting. When sickness stopped, commence following mixture:—

_Recipe_:

Liq. Morphia, 1 drachm. Hoffmann’s Spirits, 2 drachms. Paregoric, 1½ drachms. Ipecacuanha Wine, 1 drachm. Syrup of Squills, 1 ounce. Water to 3 ounces.

_Dose_: One teaspoonful to a tablespoonful[1] every four or six hours. Apply hot linseed meal poultices to throat and front of chest. Give aperient medicine. The emetic, if the cough and breathing remain bad, may be repeated in two days. When the active symptoms have passed and the cough better, petroleum emulsion may be given. During early stages light diet should be given; later meat.

=Bronchitis (Chronic Husk)=:

_Symptoms_: Though the dog may appear very well, with good appetite, there is a frequent dry, hard cough, which is generally worse at night and early morning, but any exertion or excitement induces a fit of coughing. After each attack, the dog retches as if he had something in his throat, and was going to vomit.

_Treatment_: Give aperient medicine occasionally, and the following mixture:—

_Recipe_:

Tinct. Nux Vomica, 24 drops. Ipecacuanha Wine, 1 drachm. Water to 3 ounces.

_Doses_: One teaspoonful to a tablespoonful[1] three times a day. When cough is very troublesome give a dose of the mixture recommended for acute bronchitis at night, or from fifteen[1] drops to one teaspoonful of Smith’s glyco-heroin in a little water.

_Diet_: The diet in these cases is very important, and I find under-done meat the best possible food, as it nourishes the dog well without distending the stomach and causing pressure on the chest.

=Bruises=:

_Symptoms_: Discoloration of the skin from effusion of blood under result of injury.

_Treatment_: Apply following lotion often:—

_Recipe_:

Goulard’s Extract Lead, 1 drachm. Liquor Opium, 1 drachm. Distilled Water to 8 ounces.

When in a suitable part, so that a bandage may be applied, the lotion is more efficacious if applied on lint, which should be covered over with a piece oil silk, and then a bandage.

Give aperient medicine, and keep dog at rest for a few days.

=Burns=:

_Symptoms_: The skin may be scorched and the coat frizzled, but the roots not destroyed; or the skin may be destroyed and a large blister form, which sooner or later suppurates. Burns, the result of boiling water, are practically as severe as those of fire, for in either case the hair never grows afterwards.

_Treatment_: When the skin only is scorched, apply lime water and linseed oil. One part of the former, mixed with two parts of the latter, should be dabbed on two or three times a day. In severe burns the part may be smeared over with boracic ointment, and when the blister has broken the same ointment should be applied on lint, which must be kept in its place with a bandage or coat. Repeat dressing two or three times a day.

=Calculi (Stones in the Kidney)=:

_Symptoms_: Blood, and also in many cases pus, is passed with the urine. The dog at times seems very ill, the temperature may go up to 103 or 104. Pain on pressure over the loins, sickness, loss of condition, and great wasting. In severe cases there is collapse, and death follows the result of uræmia poisoning.

_Treatment_: Open the bowels freely. Apply hot fomentations or poultices to the loins, and give following medicine:—

_Recipe_:

Bicarbonate of Potash, 1 drachm. Boro-citrate of Magnesia, 1 ounce.

Mix.

Give from sufficient to cover a sixpence to a teaspoonful,[1] two or three times a day, mixed with food or milk.

_Diet_: Give plenty of milk mixed with equal parts Vichy water. Also Benger’s food with milk, tripe, and fresh boiled fish, with well-cooked rice. Avoid red meat.

=Calculi in Bladder=:

_Symptoms_: In the dog the stones are generally small, varying in size from a millet seed to a pea, though occasionally one does find a large one. In bitches the stone is generally not discovered until it has become a good size, and set up irritation of the bladder. In the dog, when the stones are small they, as a rule, do not seem to do any harm or cause inconvenience until one or more escape from the bladder, pass into the urinary passage or urethra, and become lodged in the canal just behind the bone in the penis where the passage is smallest. If the stone is quite round—which, fortunately, is not always the case—it acts like a cork in a bottle, and the dog is unable to pass any water. He stands or stoops like a bitch, and keeps straining; but nothing comes away, except, perhaps, a single drop occasionally of blood-stained urine. If the stone happens to be not quite round, then he is able to pass a small quantity of highly-coloured water by great effort. To ascertain for certain if these symptoms are the result of gravel or stone, a small sound or catheter should be passed; and if there is any blockage in the passage it is easily ascertained, for in that case it will be impossible to pass the instrument for more than a few inches instead of from 6 to 24 inches, according to the size of the dog; and besides, the hard piece of gravel or small stone will be felt. In some cases when the stone is not quite round the instrument will pass to the side of it, and then one can easily feel the grating of the stone against the instrument as it passes, more especially as it is withdrawn.

_Treatment_: Medicines are of little use, though a sedative like hyoscyamus will sometimes relieve the spasm of the parts, and enable the patient to pass a little water when the passage is not completely blocked; when it is, the stone may sometimes be pushed back to where the passage is larger, and thus enable the dog to relieve himself; but in all these cases arrangements should be immediately made for an operation, which is the only cure.

In bitches the symptoms of a calculus in the bladder are somewhat similar to those shown by the male: she is constantly straining to micturate, even after the bladder is emptied of water; the urine is high-coloured and smells strong, and often a few drops of blood are passed at the end of micturition, or the water may be blood-stained.

_Treatment_: Operation. Dogs once suffering from calculi are always liable to a recurrence. This may sometimes be prevented by giving occasionally a course of the following:—

Bicarbonate of Potash, 2 drachms. Boro-citrate of Magnesia, 2 ounces.

Mix.