 Chapter 51 Part 2 of Dogs and All About Them. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Dogs and All About Them by Robert Layton. Chapter 51 Part 2. Constipation, more commonly called costiveness, is also a very common complaint. It often occurs in the progress of other diseases, but is just as often a separate ailment. Perhaps no complaint to which arcane friends are liable is less understood by the non-professional dog doctor and by dog owners themselves, often caused by weakness in the codes of the intestine. 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. Yewat 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 favors 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 balls, and defecation is accomplished with great difficulty. The animal often having to try several times before he succeeds in affecting the act, and this only after the most acute suffering. The feces 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 appetite, with a two-pail tongue, dullness, and sleepiness, with slight redness of the conjunctiva. Sometimes constipation alternates with diarrhea, the food being improperly commingled with a gastric and other juices, for meds, spoils, and becomes, instead of healthy blood-producing clime, an irritant purgative. Treatment. Hygienic treatment more than medicinal. Mild doses of castor oil, compound rhubarb peel, 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 back-at-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 peel, 1-5 grains, quinine, 1-8-2 grains, extract of taraxacum, 2-10 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 2-20 grains, according to size of bromide of potassium in the little camp or 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 film dish 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 kenneling and from permitting their favorites 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, the plaster medicated oils or ointments all over the skin of a dog suffering from constitutional 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 animal cues will not be wholly cured by any applications whatever. Constitutional remedy should go hand-in-hand with this. And indeed, so great is the defensive power of strong, pure blood, rich in its white carpa sauce or lusakites that I believe I could cure even the worst forms of mange by internal remedies, good food and tonics, et cetera, 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. One, the non-contagious. Two, the contagious. And three, elements caused by external parasites. One, the non-contagious. A, erythema. This is a redness with slight inflammation of the skin, the deeper tissues underneath not being involved. Examples. That scene between the wrinkles of well-bred pugs, mastiffs or bulldogs or inside the thighs of greyhounds, et cetera. 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 may 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 to early morning sluice down with cold water and aqueousia 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, whether 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 supply 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 speci of lichen. Then of course it is often accompanied with women, 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 constitutional and local. Attend to the organs of digestion. Keep a moderate dose of opening medicine to clear away offending matter. This simple appearance may be repeated occasionally, say once a week. And if diarrhea be present, it may be checked by the addition of a little morphia or dilute sulfuric acid. Cream of tartar with sulfur is an excellent derivative. Being both diuretic and diaphoretic, but it must not be given in doses large enough to purge. At the same time, we may give thrice daily atonic pill like the following. Sulfate of quinine, 1a to 3 grains. Sulfate of iron, 1 half grain to 5 grains. Extract of hysoymus, 1a to 3 grains. Extract of taraxacum and glycerin enough to make a pill. Locally. Perfect cleanliness. Cooling lotion spatted on to the sore places. Sprat skewer. 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. Two. Contagious skin diseases. These are usually called mange proper and follicular mange or skebies. I want to say a word on the latter first. It depends upon a microscopic animal cube 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. Skebs form, the patches extend or come out on other parts of the body. Head, legs, belly or sides. Skin becomes red in white hair dogs. Other 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, two drums. Linsid oil, seven ounces. Solution of pot ash, one ounce. First mix the creosote and oil then add the solution and shake. Better to shave the hair off around the patches. Kenals 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 sarcopscanus. Unlike eczema, this mange is spread from dog to dog by touch or intercommunication just as one person catches the each from another. The symptoms. At first this 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 constitutional 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 deodorizers 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 cherry 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 soul for ointment. Do over only a part or two at a time. The dog to be washed after three days. But the compound soul for ointment itself is a splendid application and it is not dangerous. Skin complaints from vermin. The treatment is obvious. Get rid of the costs. 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 constitutionally as well. In addition to good diet, perfect cleanliness of coat, kennel and all surroundings and application of the ointment or oil let the dog have all the fresh air possible. And exercise but never overexciting or too fatiguing. Then a course of arsenic seldom fails to do good. I do not believe in beginning the exhibition of arsenic 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 a tasteless liquor arsenicalis. It is easily administered. It ought to be given mixed with the food as it ought to enter the blood with a kyle 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 those given when left off. There are two things which assist the arsenic at least to go well with it. They are iron in some form and viral. The latter will be needed when there is much loss of flesh. A simple peel of soap fate of iron and extract of liquorice may be used. Those of liquor arsenicalis from one to six drops ter die to commence with gradually increased to five to twenty drops. Dandruff. A scaly or scurvy 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 patash, perhaps less food. Bowls to be seen to by giving plenty of green food with a morsel of ship's mouth or rolyver occasionally. Wash about once in three weeks. A very little borax in the last water, say a drum to a gallon. Use mild soap. Never use a very hard brush or sharp comb. Tar soap rites may be tried. Parasites internal. Worms. We have, roughly speaking, two kinds of worms to treat in the dog. One, the round, and two, the tape. One, 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 few use 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 for the occasion great distress to their host. The appetite 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. They're usually a short, dry cup from reflex irritation of the bronchial mucus membrane about smelling breath and initiation 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 stool is, of course, the diagnostic symptom. Treatment. I have cured many cases with santonine and aricannut, powder, betel nut, those 10 grains to two drums or turpentine, those from 10 drops to one and one half drums, beaten up with yolk of egg. But aricannut does better for tapeworm, so we cannot do better than trust to pure santonine. The dose is from one grain for a toy up to six grains for a mastiff. Mix it with a little butter and stick it well back in the roof of the dog's mouth. He must have fasted previously for 12 hours and had a dose of castor oil the day before. In four or five hours after he has swallowed the santonine, let him have a dose of either olive oil or decoction of alos. Those, two drums to two ounces or more, repeat the treatment in five days. Sprat's cure may be safely depended on for worms. The perfect cleanliness of the kennel is of paramount importance. The animal's general health requires looking after and he may be brought once more into good condition by proper food and of course of vegetable tonics. If wanted in show condition, we have plasmod to fall back upon and borrows and welcomes extract of malt. There is a roundworm which at times infests the dog's bladder and may cause occlusion of the urethra. A whipworm inhabiting the cecum. Another may occupy a position in the mucus membrane of the stomach. Some infest the blood and others the eye. Two, tapeworms. There are several kinds, but the treatment is the same in all cases. The commonest in the country is the cucko marine. This is a tapeworm of about 15 inches in average length. Although I have taken them from Newfoundland paps fully 30 inches long. It is a semi-transparent endtozoan. Each segment is long compared to its breath and narrowed at both ends. Each joint has, when detached, an independent sexual existence. The dog often becomes infested with his parasite from eating ship's brains and dogs does afflicted and allowed to remote pleasure over fields and hills where ships are fed, so the seeds of gidd in our flocks to any extent. We know too well the great use of colly dogs to the shepherd or grazier to advise that dogs should not be employed as assistants but surely it would be to their owner's advantage to see that they were kept in a state of health and cleanliness. Treatment. We ought to endeavor to prevent as well as to cure. We should never allow our dogs to eat the entrails of hairs or rabbits. Never allow them to be fed on raw ship's intestines nor the brains of ship. Never permit them to lounge around butcher's shops nor eat awful of any kind. Let their food be well-cooked and their skins and kennels kept scrupulously clean. Dogs that are used for ship and cattle ought, twice a year at least, to go under treatment for the expulsion of worms, whether they are infested or not. An antelmentic would make sure and could hardly hurt them. For the expulsion of tapeworms, we depend mostly on Arikanat in order that the tapeworm should receive the full benefit of the remedy and order a dose of castor oil the day before in the morning and recommend no food to be given that day except beef, tea, or mutton broth. The bowels are thus empty next morning so that the parasite cannot shelter itself anywhere and is therefore sure to be acted on. Infusion of cusco is sometimes used as an antelmentic so is warmwood and the liquid extract of male fern and in America, spigilia root and pumpkin seeds. The best tonic to give in cases of worms is the extract of coesia. Extract of coesia, 1-10 grains. Extract of high-siamus, 1.5-5 grains to make one pill, thrice daily. Parasites external. Fleece, washing with sprouts, medicated soap, extra clean kennels, dusting with keating and afterwards washing. This may not kill the fleece, but it drives them off. Take the dog on the grass while dusting and begin along the spine. Never do it in the house. Ticks. I have noticed these disagreeable bloodsuckers only on the heads and bodies of sporting or colly dogs who had been boring for some time through covers and thickets. They soon make themselves visible as the bodies swells up with the blood they suck until they resemble small, soft wards about as big as a pea. They belong to the natural family, Ixodia de. Treatment. If not very numerous, they should be cut off and apart-touched with the little turps. The sulfurite of calcium will also kill them so will the more dangerous white precipitate or even a strong solution of carbolic acid which must be used sparingly, however. Lies. The lies are hatched from nits which we find clinging in rows and very tenaciously too to the hairs. The insects themselves are more difficult to find but they are on puppies sometimes in thousands. To destroy them, I have tried several plants. Oil is very effectual and has safety to recommend it. Common sweet oil is as good as cure as any and you may add a little oil of anise and some sublime sulfur which will increase the effect. Quasia water may be used to damp the coat. The matted portions of a long-haired dog's coat must be cut off with scissors for there the lies often lurk. The oil dressing will not kill the nits so that vinegar must be used. After a few days, the dressing must be repeated. And so on three or four times. To do any good, the whole of the dog's coat must be drenched in oil and the dog washed with good dog soap and warm water twelve hours afterwards. End of Chapter 51 Part 2 Recording by Shana Sear Fresno, California Chapter 52 of Dogs in All About Them This is a LibriVox recording from the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Tom Clifton Dogs and All About Them Chapter 52 The Dog and the Law Privileges of First Bite It is popularly but rather erroneously supposed that every dog is entitled to one bite. Perhaps it'd be more accurate to state that every dog may with impunity have one snap or one intended bite, but only dogs of hitherto interapproachable character are permitted the honor of a genuine, tasteful bite. Once a dog, however, has displayed dangerous propensities even though he has never had the satisfaction of affecting an actual bite and once his owner or the person who harbors him becomes aware of these evil inclinations, sianter, either of his own knowledge or by notice, the law looks upon such a dog as a dangerous beast at his peril. The onus of proof is on the victim to show that the owner had previous knowledge of the animal's ferocity though in reality very little evidence of sianter is as a rule required and notice need not necessarily be given directly to the owner but to any person who has charge of the dog. The person attacked has yet another remedy. Even after being bitten. By twenty-eight and twenty-nine Victoria Chapter Sixty the owner of a dog which attacks sheep or cattle and cattle includes horses is responsible for all damage and there is no necessity to prove previous evil propensities. This act is wholly repealed by the act called the Dogs Act 1906 which came into forces on January 1st 1907 but the new act re-enact the section where it is not necessary for the person's claiming damages to show a previous mischievous propensity in the dog or the owner's knowledge of set's previous propensity or show that the injury was attributable to neglect on the part of the owner. The word cattle includes horses, asses, sheep, goats and swine. The law looks upon fighting between dogs as a natural and necessary incident so provided the fight was a fair one and the contestants appear to consider it so. The owner, however, of a peacefully disposed dog which is attacked and injured or killed by one savage and unrestrained has the right of action against the owner of the letter. The owner of the peacefully disposed animal may justifiably kill the savage brute in order to save his dog but he must run the risk of being able to prove that this was the only means for the dog. Every dog owner must annually take out a license for each dog he keeps. The license which is obtainable at all post offices at the cost of seven shilling six pence is dated run from the hour it was taken out until the following 31st December. The person in whose custody or upon whose premises the dog is found will be deemed its owner of the dog under the age of six months. Two. Hounds under twelve months old either used or hunted with the pack provided that the master has taken out proper licenses for all hounds entered in the pack. Three. One dog kept and used by a blind person solely for his or her guidance. Four. Dogs kept and used solely for the purpose of tending sheep or cattle or in the exercise of the occupation under the Contagious Diseases Animals Act 1878-1894 local authorities that is county, borough or district councils were empowered to issue orders regulating the musling of dogs in public places and the keeping of dogs under control otherwise than by musling offenders under these acts are liable to affine not exceeding twenty pounds. The statute 57 and 58 for musling dogs keeping them under control and the detention and disposal of stray dogs in section two of the Dogs Act 1906 known by some as the Curfew Bell Act says that the Diseases of Animals Act 1894 shall have effect. A. for prescribing and regulating the wearing by dogs while in a highway or in a place of public resort of a collar with the name and address of the owner inscribed on the collar plate or badge attached thereto. B. with a view to the prevention of wearing cattle for preventing dogs or any class of dogs from straying during all or any of the hours between sunset and sunrise. Stray dogs The Dogs Act 1906 has some important sections dealing with the seizure of stray dogs and an acts that where a police officer has reason to believe that any dog found in a highway or in a place of public resort is a stray dog. He may seize and retain it until the owner has claimed it and paid off all expenses incurred by reason of its detention. If the dog so sees where is a collar on which is the address of any person or if the dog is known then the chief officer of the police or some person authorized by him on that behalf shall serve on either such person a notice in writing stating failing the owner putting in an appearance and paying all expenses of detention within the seven clear days then the chief officer of police or any person authorized by him may cause the dog to be sold or destroyed in a manner to cause as little pain as possible. The police must keep a proper register of all dogs seized and every such register shall be opened to inspection at all reasonable times by any member of the public and the police may transfer such dog to any establishment for the reception of stray dogs but only if there is proper register kept at such establishment open to inspection by the public on payment of a fee not to exceed one shilling. Another section enacts that any person who takes possession of a stray dog shall forthwith either return the dog to its owner or give notice in writing to the dog and stating the place where the dog was found and the place where he is being detained and any person failing to comply with the provisions of this section shall be liable on conviction under the summary jurisdiction acts to affine not exceeding 40 shillings. Importation of dogs The power of making orders dealing with the importation of dogs is vested in the Board of Agriculture who have absolute authority in the matter the initial step to be taken by a person wishing to import a dog into Great Britain from any other country excepting Ireland the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man is that he must fill up an application form to the said Board which he had previously obtained from them in which he applies for a license to land the dog under the conditions imposed by the Board which he undertakes to obey. On the forum he has to give a full description of the dog the name and address of the owner the proposed Port of Landing list which you will receive from the Board he must select the carrying agents he proposes should superintend the movement of the dog from the Port of Landing to the place of detention and also the premises of a veterinary surgeon on which he proposes the dog shall be detained and isolated as required by the order an imported dog must be landed and taken to the place of detention in a suitable box, hamper, crate or other receptacle and as a general rule has to remain entirely isolated motor cars and dogs unquestionably the greatest enemy that a dog possesses at the present time is the motor car presuming the owner of the dog is fortunate enough to know whose car it was that ran over his dog and to have some evidence of excessive or unreasonable speed or other negligence on the part of the car driver at the time of the accident he will find the law ever ready to assist him a dog has every bit as much right to the high road as a motor car efforts have been made on the part of motor owners to get the courts to hold that dogs on a high road are only under proper control if on a lead and that if they are not on a lead the owner of them is guilty of negligence in allowing his dog to stroll about and therefore is not entitled to recover such efforts have not been successful even supposing a court to hold that the fact of a dog being loose in this way or unaccompanied was evidence of negligence against his owner for the law is that though a plaintiff may have been negligent in some way as this yet if the defendant could by the exercise of reasonable care have avoided the accident the plaintiff can still recover there are several cases that decide this valuable principle end of chapter 52 end of dogs and all about them by Robert Layton