Dogs and All about Them Part 29

_The exhibition of purgatives can only have a temporary effect in relieving the symptoms_, and is certain to be followed by reaction, and consequently by further debility. Want of exercise and bath common cause.

Youatt was never more correct in his life than when he said: "Many dogs have a dry constipated habit, often greatly increased by the bones on which they are fed. This favours the disposition to mange, etc. It produces indigestion, encourages worms, blackens the teeth, and causes fetid breath."

_Symptoms_--The stools are hard, usually in large round b.a.l.l.s, and defecation is accomplished with great difficulty, the animal often having to try several times before he succeeds in effecting the act, and this only after the most acute suffering. The faeces are generally covered with white mucus, showing the heat and semi-dry condition of the gut. The stool is sometimes so dry as to fall to pieces like so much oatmeal.

There is generally also a deficiency of bile in the motions, and, in addition to simple costiveness, we have more or less loss of appet.i.te, with a too pale tongue, dullness, and sleepiness, with slight redness of the conjunctiva. Sometimes constipation alternates with diarrhoea, the food being improperly commingled with the gastric and other juices, ferments, spoils, and becomes, instead of healthy blood-producing chyme, an irritant purgative.

_Treatment_--Hygienic treatment more than medicinal. Mild doses of castor oil, compound rhubarb pill, or olive oil, may at first be necessary. Sometimes an enema will be required if the medicine will not act.

Plenty of exercise and a swim daily (with a good run after the swim), or instead of the swim a bucket bath--water thrown over the dog.

Give oatmeal, rather than flour or fine bread, as the staple of his diet, but a goodly allowance of meat is to be given as well, with cabbage or boiled liver, or even a portion of raw liver. Fresh air and exercise in the fields. You may give a bolus before dinner, such as the following: Compound rhubarb pill, 1 to 5 grains; quinine, 1/8 to 2 grains; extract of taraxac.u.m, 2 to 10 grains. Mix.

FITS.

Whatever be the cause, they are very alarming. In puppies they are called Convulsions, and resemble epileptic fits. Keep the dog very quiet, but use little force, simply enough to keep him from hurting himself. Keep out of the sun, or in a darkened room. When he can swallow give from 2 to 20 grains (according to size) of bromide of pota.s.sium in a little camphor water thrice daily for a few days. Only milk food. Keep quiet.

SKIN DISEASES.

In the whole range of dog ailments included in the term canine pathology there are none more bothersome to treat successfully nor more difficult to diagnose than those of the skin. There are none either that afford the quack or patent-nostrum monger a larger field for the practice of his fiendish gifts. If I were to be asked the questions, "Why do dogs suffer so much from skin complaints?" and "Why does it appear to be so difficult to treat them?" I should answer the first thus: Through the neglect of their owners, from want of cleanliness, from injudicious feeding, from bad kennelling, and from permitting their favourites such free intercourse with other members of the canine fraternity. Overcrowding is another and distinct source of skin troubles.

My answer to the second question is that the layman too often treats the trouble in the skin as if it were the disease itself, whereas it is, generally, merely a symptom thereof. Examples: To plaster medicated oils or ointments all over the skin of a dog suffering from const.i.tutional eczema is about as sensible as would be the painting white of the yellow skin in jaundice in order to cure the disordered liver.

But even those contagious diseases that are caused by skin germs or animalcules will not be wholly cured by any applications whatever.

Const.i.tutional remedies should go hand in hand with these. And, indeed, so great is the defensive power of strong, pure blood, rich in its white corpuscles or leucocytes, that I believe I could cure even the worst forms of mange by internal remedies, good food, and tonics, etc., without the aid of any dressing whatever except pure cold water.

In treating of skin diseases it is usual to divide them into three sections: (1) The non-contagious, (2) the contagious, and (3) ailments caused by external parasites.

(1) The Non-Contagious.--(a) Erythema.--This is a redness, with slight inflammation of the skin, the deeper tissues underneath not being involved. _Examples_--That seen between the wrinkles of well-bred Pugs, Mastiffs, or Bulldogs, or inside the thighs of Greyhounds, etc. If the skin breaks there may be discharges of pus, and if the case is not cured the skin may thicken and crack, and the dog make matters worse with his tongue.

_Treatment_--Review and correct the methods of feeding. A dog should be neither too gross nor too lean. Exercise, perfect cleanliness, the early morning sluice-down with cold water, and a qua.s.sia tonic. He may need a laxative as well.

_Locally_--Dusting with oxide of zinc or the violet powder of the nurseries, a lotion of lead, or arnica. Fomentation, followed by cold water, and, when dry, dusting as above. A weak solution of boracic acid (any chemist) will sometimes do good.

(b) Prurigo.--Itching all over, with or without scurf. Sometimes thickening.

_Treatment_--Regulation of diet, green vegetables, fruit if he will take it, brushing and grooming, but never roughly. Try for worms and for fleas.

(c) Eczema.--The name is not a happy one as applied to the usual itching skin disease of dogs. Eczema proper is an eruption in which the formed matter dries off into scales or scabs, and dog eczema, so-called, is as often as not a species of lichen. Then, of course, it is often accompanied with vermin, nearly always with dirt, and it is irritated out of all character by the biting and scratching of the dog himself.

_Treatment_--Must be both const.i.tutional and local. Attend to the organs of digestion. Give a moderate dose of opening medicine, to clear away offending matter. This simple aperient may be repeated occasionally, say once a week, and if diarrhoea be present it may be checked by the addition of a little morphia or dilute sulphuric acid.

Cream of tartar with sulphur is an excellent derivative, being both diuretic and diaph.o.r.etic, but it must not be given in doses large enough to purge. At the same time we may give thrice daily a tonic pill like the following:--

Sulphate of quinine, 1/8 to 3 grains; sulphate of iron, 1/2 grain to 5 grains; extract of hyoscyamus, 1/8 to 3 grains; extract of taraxac.u.m and glycerine enough to make a pill.

_Locally_--Perfect cleanliness. Cooling lotions patted on to the sore places. Spratts' Cure. (N.B.--I know what every remedy contains, or I should not recommend it.) Benzoated zinc ointment after the lotion has dried in. Wash carefully once a week, using the ointment when skin is dry, or the lotion to allay irritation.

(2) Contagious Skin Diseases.--These are usually called mange proper and follicular mange, or scabies. I want to say a word on the latter first. It depends upon a microscopic animalcule called the _Acarus folliculorum_. The trouble begins by the formation of patches, from which the hair falls off, and on which may be noticed a few pimples.

Scabs form, the patches extend, or come out on other parts of the body, head, legs, belly, or sides. Skin becomes red in white-haired dogs.

Odour of this trouble very offensive. More _pain_ than itching seems to be the symptomatic rule. Whole body may become affected.

_Treatment_--Dress the affected parts twice a week with the following:--

Creosote, 2 drachms; linseed oil, 7 ounces; solution of potash, 1 ounce. First mix the creosote and oil, then add the solution and shake.

Better to shave the hair off around the patches. Kennels must be kept clean with garden soap and hot water, and all bedding burned after use.

From three months to six will be needed to cure bad cases.

Mange Proper is also caused by a parasite or acarus, called the _Sarcops ca.n.u.s_. Unlike eczema, this mange is spread from dog to dog by touch or intercommunication, just as one person catches the itch from another.

_The Symptoms_--At first these may escape attention, but there are vesicles which the dog scratches and breaks, and thus the disease spreads. The hair gets matted and falls off. Regions of the body most commonly affected, head, chest, back, rump, and extremities. There may not be much const.i.tutional disturbance from the actual injury to the skin, but from his suffering so much from the irritation and the want of rest the health suffers.

_Treatment_--Avoid the use of so-called disinfectants. Most of those sold as such are simply deodorisers, and, applied to the skin, are useless. Nor are they of much use in cleaning the kennels. Nothing suits better for woodwork than, first, carbolic wash, and then a thorough scrubbing with hot water and garden soap.

Some ointment must be used to the skin, and as I am writing for laymen only I feel chary in recommending such strong ones as the green iodide of mercury. If you do use it mix it with twice its bulk of the compound sulphur ointment. Do over only a part or two at a time. The dog to be washed after three days. But the compound sulphur ointment itself is a splendid application, and it is not dangerous.

(3) Skin Complaints from Vermin.--The treatment is obvious--get rid of the cause.

_As their diagnosis is so difficult, whenever the dog-owner is in doubt, make certain by treating the dog not only by local applications but const.i.tutionally as well_. In addition to good diet, perfect cleanliness of coat, kennel, and all surroundings, and the application of the ointment or oil, let the dog have all the fresh air possible, and exercise, but never over-exciting or too fatiguing. Then a course of a.r.s.enic seldom fails to do good.

I do not believe in beginning the exhibition of a.r.s.enic too soon. I prefer paying my first attentions to the digestive organs and state of the bowels. The form of exhibition which I have found suit as well as any is the _tasteless Liquor a.r.s.enicalis_. It is easily administered.

It ought to be given mixed with the food, as it ought to enter the blood with the chyle from the diet. It ought, day by day, to be gradually, not hurriedly, increased. Symptoms of loathing of food and redness of conjunctiva call for the cessation of its use for two or three days at least, when it is to be recommended at the same size of dose given when left off.

There are two things which a.s.sist the a.r.s.enic, at least to go well with it; they are, iron in some form and Virol. The latter will be needed when there is much loss of flesh. A simple pill of sulphate of iron and extract of liquorice may be used. Dose of _Liquor a.r.s.enicalis_ from 1 to 6 drops _ter die_ to commence with, gradually increased to 5 to 20 drops.

Dandruff.--A scaly or scurfy condition of the skin, with more or less of irritation. It is really a shedding of the scaly epidermis brought on by injudicious feeding or want of exercise as a primary cause. The dog, in cases of this kind, needs cooling medicines, such as small doses of the nitrate and chlorates of potash, perhaps less food.

Bowels to be seen to by giving plenty of green food, with a morsel of sheep's melt or raw liver occasionally. Wash about once in three weeks, a very little borax in the last water, say a drachm to a gallon. Use mild soap. Never use a very hard brush or sharp comb. Tar soap (Wright's) may be tried.

PARASITES--INTERNAL.

WORMS.

We have, roughly speaking, two kinds of worms to treat in the dog: (1) the round, and (2) the tape.

(1) _Round-worms_--They are in shape and size not unlike the garden worm, but harder, pale, and pointed.

_Symptoms_--Sometimes these are alarming, for the worm itself is occasionally seized with the mania for foreign travel, and finds its way into the throat or nostrils, causing the dog to become perfectly furious, and inducing such pain and agony that it may seem charity to end its life. The worms may also crawl into the stomach, and give rise to great irritation, but are usually dislodged therefrom by the violence accompanying the act of vomiting.

Their usual habitat, however, is the small intestines, where they occasion great distress to their host. The appet.i.te is always depraved and voracious. At times there is colic, with sickness and perhaps vomiting, and the bowels are alternately constipated or loose. The coat is harsh and staring, there usually is short, dry cough from reflex irritation of the bronchial mucous membrane, a bad-smelling breath and emaciation or at least considerable poverty of flesh.

The disease is most common in puppies and in young dogs. The appearance of the ascaris in the dog's stools is, of course, _the_ diagnostic symptom.

_Treatment_--I have cured many cases with santonin and areca-nut powder (betel-nut), dose 10 grains to 2 drachms; or turpentine, dose from 10 drops to 1-1/2 drachms, beaten up with yolk of egg.

But areca-nut does better for tape-worm, so we cannot do better than trust to pure santonin. The dose is from 1 grain for a Toy up to 6 grains for a Mastiff. Mix it with a little b.u.t.ter, and stick it well back in the roof of the dog's mouth. He must have fasted previously for twelve hours, and had a dose of castor oil the day before. In four or five hours after he has swallowed the santonin, let him have a dose of either olive oil or decoction of aloes. Dose, 2 drachms to 2 ounces or more. Repeat the treatment in five days. Spratts' cure may be safely depended on for worms. [1]

[1] Many dog owners swear by the preparation called Ruby, which can be recommended as a cure for worms.--Ed.

The perfect cleanliness of the kennel is of paramount importance.