Recipe:
| Cow’s Milk, | 15 ounces. |
| Casein or Plasmon, | 2¼ ” |
| Cream, | 2¼ ” |
| Water, | 5 ” |
Mix the casein into a paste with the water, then add the milk, thoroughly stirring. Put in an enamel saucepan and bring gradually to a boil, and boil for two minutes. Set aside to cool, and when cold, add the cream, and well stir again.
For a change, Sanatogen may be given with milk or Spratt’s invalid food.
Cows’ milk diluted with water should never be given as is often done, and the puppy’s digestion ruined by over-dilating the stomach, for the puppy has to take such a quantity to get sufficient nourishment, whereas dogs have only a small stomach and require concentrated food.
Puppies should commence to be weaned when about six weeks old. The bitch at first should be kept away from her offspring during the day, say for three or four days; afterwards she should be allowed to visit them night and morning, say for about an hour each time, so long as there are any signs of milk being secreted.
To help to disperse the milk, a dose of castor oil, from one teaspoonful to three[1] tablespoonfuls, may be given the bitch occasionally.
If anything is rubbed on the milk glands, like methylated spirits and water, or spirits of camphor, etc., it must be carefully washed off before the bitch is allowed to return to the puppies. If the glands become hard and knotted they must be kneaded with camphorated oil until soft, and then the contents drawn off with the fingers or a proper breast-pump.
For hints how to feed young puppies, see [article on Feeding in the Appendix].