Treatment: Navel rupture, which is generally congenital, has a tendency to become smaller as the puppy gets older; and often by the time he or she is a year old it may have quite disappeared. Trusses are useless in the treatment of hernia in dogs, they fidget the animal so; but a radical cure can be effected in most cases, with every chance of success, by a surgical operation, which is not a dangerous one. (See [Hernia].)
Scalds:
Symptoms: Skin inflamed and red, and very painful; blisters appear, which break, and matter forms. Unhealthy wounds are the result, which take a long time to heal. Hair removed, the result of a burn or scald, never grows again.
Treatment: To remove the pain and inflammation, dab the parts freely with a dressing made of lime-water one part, linseed-oil two parts, mixed together. Later apply boracic ointment on lint and bandage. The wounds must be kept clean by being occasionally sponged with warm boracic lotion.
Sea Sickness:
Symptoms: Depression, loss of appetite and vomiting. Some dogs, when on a voyage or living on a yacht, the first few days appear very listless and dejected in spirits; and although there may be no sickness, food is refused, and they get very thin and miserable-looking.
Treatment: It is not a serious matter, as a rule, for the nausea generally soon passes off, and the dog starts to eat; but if it continues more than a couple of days, a small dose of bromide of potassium, say from two[1] to ten grains, may be given in a little water three or four times a day, and the dog encouraged to take Vichy water and milk in equal parts; and some tempting food, as a little chicken and stale bread-crumbs, or stewed rabbit with rice, may be offered. Once the dog commences to eat, he generally quickly regains his former condition.
Seton, How to put in a:
Clip the hair closely over the parts of the skin for about the size of half-a-crown where the needle is to enter the skin, and also where it is to pass out; then wash with warm water and soap, and dry. The needle should be slightly curved and sharp-pointed, and threaded with a piece of half-inch tape, which should be smeared over with a little turpentine ointment for about two inches in the centre, which is the part that is to be left under the skin. The dog being muzzled, a fold of skin from an inch and a half to four inches[1] should be well raised between the forefinger and thumb from the muscles underneath; then the point of the needle should be passed quickly through the raised skin where the hair has been removed; then draw the needle right through, and detach the tape. A knot should be tied at each end of the tape, about half an inch from the wounds, to prevent the seton coming out. The ends of the seton must be drawn backwards and forwards twice daily to allow the discharge to escape, and a little turpentine ointment rubbed on the tape every day for three or four days. The wounds must be kept very clean. A seton may be allowed to remain in from one to four weeks.