The mouth and gums should be kept clean by being frequently sponged with a saturated solution of boracic acid.
Keep the strength up with strong beef-tea, thickened with isinglass, and each time the dog is fed, give from half[1] to a teaspoonful of port wine. Let the patient have milk with white of an egg added, or barley water to drink.
A warm bath and a free application of some soap is beneficial. This is more particularly the case when the attack is due to absorption of the poison through the application of some ointment containing a mercurial compound.
If the skin is very moist, apply to the parts freely some finely powdered Fuller’s earth.
When the dog has become convalescent, some iron or bark tonic will assist the patient to regain strength. Raw meat should also be given in small quantities five or six times a day.
Iodine and its Compounds, as Iodide of Soda or Potash, etc.:
Symptoms: A person can take ten times as much iodide of potassium as a dog, without any bad result. The tincture of iodine is often used to reduce tumors or swellings. It seldom has any beneficial results, except in cases of goitre, when it is sometimes useful; and if the application is continued too long, or the preparation is applied over too large a surface, sufficient becomes absorbed to cause severe constitutional disturbance. If a large quantity of pure iodine or the tincture is given to a dog, the mouth and tongue will be found discoloured (dark brown); there is great pain in the throat and stomach; severe purging and vomiting—the vomited matter may be yellow or brown from the iodine, or blue, if there is any starchy matter in the stomach; and the breath has that peculiar unmistakably iodine odour. Dogs very seldom, indeed, are poisoned with iodine in this way, though it is not at all an uncommon occurrence for dogs to be slowly poisoned with iodide of potassium, or in some cases by the pure iodine, through absorption into the system by the skin. The latter should never be given, and only the former in small doses, say from half[1] to two grains, and even this quantity should not be continued too long. When it is, or large doses are given, the dog soon loses flesh; he has an almost unquenchable thirst, the result of gastric catarrh. Vomiting is frequent, especially after taking a large quantity of fluid; diarrhœa may be present; the tongue is of a dark brick-red colour; saliva flows freely from the mouth, and there is no desire for food.
Treatment: In cases of acute poisoning, if the patient does not vomit freely, an emetic should be given, as from five[1] to twenty grains of sulphate of zinc in water or some ipecacuanha wine; give starch and water, also white of egg, and water in large quantities, and allow milk ad libitum.
If there is great prostration, inject ether or brandy under the skin. In cases of chronic or slow poisoning by iodide of potassium, the medicine must, of course, be instantly stopped; and diluted hydrochloric acid, from two[1] to six drops in a dessertspoonful[1] to two tablespoonfuls of water given three times a day. If this does not stop the sickness and great thirst, the subnitrate of bismuth may be tried, in doses from five[1] to twenty grains, shaken dry on the tongue, every three or four hours. The dog must not have any water to drink, as it only increases the sickness; but plenty of ice placed in a perforated dish to lick, also iced barley or rice water. As there is often great weakness in these cases, nourishing food of an easily digested nature is required—Brand’s beef essence, given in jelly form; milk peptonised, or thickened with Benger’s food. As the case improves, lean raw meat in small quantities may be allowed.