5. Not to fidget the patient, but to give him food and medicine at regular stated times.
6. To keep the body warm, but the air he breathes fresh and cool. Fresh air never kills, but foul air often does.
The best kind of bed for a small dog being nursed in a room is a basket with a cushion in, which should be covered over with a white cloth or towel to be changed daily. For a kennel or loose box a bench should be supplied, raised a few inches from the ground, and long and wide enough for the dog to lie out full length. Straw makes a good bedding, and should be changed often.
In nursing surgical cases, cleanliness is even more important than in medical cases, and the patient should be kept under similar conditions. It is important to take the temperature twice a day at least, for a rise of temperature is the first symptom of suppuration in a wound, and shows that it is not healing in a normal manner; or if healing, by suppuration it points to pus being pent up somewhere, and the surgeon’s attention is required.
Clean bandages and dressing should be put on every time a wound is dressed, and the bandages taken off should be washed in some disinfectant like Pearson’s fluid, dried and ironed, ready for use again. The old dressing which has been in contact with the wound should be burnt.
Bitches in the nest with puppies require, for the first week at least, as careful nursing as an invalid, and the temperature for the first week regularly taken. It is always a little above normal during the first few days, about 102·4 degs. F. (taken in the bowel); but if it rises over 103 degs. F., the case is not taking a normal course, and an examination should be made. Possibly there may be a dead puppy or one of the fœtal envelopes left behind, which, of course, must be immediately removed, and the womb syringed out with a solution of permanganate of potash, one grain to the ounce of warm water; from two ounces to a pint[1] of the solution should be used at a time, and the injection repeated in a few hours. A saturated solution of boracic acid or clinesol, one grain to the ounce, may be used instead of the potash. In bad cases, when the temperature is over 104 degs. F., a solution of perchloride of mercury, one in three thousand, is the best remedy; but about a couple of minutes after giving an injection of this drug, the womb must be thoroughly washed out with warm water.
Obesity (Too Fat):
Symptoms: This is a common complaint of elderly pet dogs, especially pugs; but it is not, as generally supposed, always the result of overfeeding and want of exercise, for lots of dogs will put on flesh in spite of careful dieting, and then I generally put it down in these cases to a contented mind.
Treatment: In treating these cases, medicines are not advisable except occasionally giving a free purge. If any good is to be done it must be by dieting; and whatever food is given should be dry. Raw, or nearly raw, meat is the best food, for nearly all fat dogs put on this diet lose weight considerably, and at the same time improve in health by becoming brighter and livelier, and more ready to take exercise; but the meat must be given sparingly, say for a small dog like a pomeranian, one ounce and a half twice a day; and for a dog the size of a fox terrier, three ounces twice a day. The worst of this food is, it never seems to satisfy; in fact, a dog fed on raw meat always seems hungry. Raw meat does not answer in every case, for the dog sometimes gets fatter instead of thinner, as required. Then a diet of dry biscuit should be tried. For small dogs, Spratts’ pet-dog biscuits should be given—whole, if they will be taken that way, otherwise they must be broken up in small pieces, and no other food at all given; and the more exercise the better.