Treatment: From a quarter to two grains of iodide of potassium three times a day, or from five[1] grains to two scruples of the boro-citrate of magnesia in water thrice daily. This medicine may be given with the food. Vichy water to drink instead of plain water.
Choking:
Symptoms: Dogs frequently choke themselves when eating bones, especially chop or cutlet bones; also occasionally with a large piece of meat which may become impacted in the gullet. But this is not so serious, as it can easily be pushed down into the stomach if it cannot be pulled upwards. When an offending bone or other matter becomes lodged in the back of the throat the dog coughs and retches violently, and may even die from asphyxia. But as a rule the bone does not stop there, but passes down until the gullet passes over the heart, where it is rather smaller, and then the bone is stopped, which causes the dog great distress. He keeps gulping as if trying to swallow, and occasionally retches. In a day or two the distress passes off and the patient seems fairly well and often ready to eat, but if any solid food is taken directly it reaches the part where the obstruction is it is brought up, and this continues to happen so long as the obstruction remains, but the dog as a rule is able to swallow liquids as milk, egg and milk, beef teas, etc.
Dogs, especially puppies, often swallow needles and pins, which generally become embedded in the back of the tongue, but sometimes they reach the gullet and pass through, causing a bad abscess to form in the throat just behind the angle of the jaw.
Treatment: When the bone or meat or other matter becomes lodged in the back of the throat, it is generally easily removed with the finger. Failing this, forceps must be used; but the symptoms are often very distressing, and prompt relief is necessary. When the bone has passed far down in the gullet and become fixed just over the heart, relief is much more difficult. Sometimes if the dog can be induced to take a few pieces of meat it will force it on. If this fails, forceps must be tried, and if the bone cannot be removed with them, then one must try to push it downwards into the stomach with a probang. Too much force must not be used or the gullet may be ruptured, which is fatal. If it cannot be removed, the dog must be fed on liquid food, and in time the points of the bone may become dissolved, and then it will be easier to push it down with a probang.
In removing needles from the back of the tongue or fauces, which is best done with forceps, care must be taken not to break them. The tongue should be drawn well forward out of the mouth by taking hold of it with a cloth so as to bring into view the back of the tongue and fauces.
Chorea, St. Vitus’s Dance:
Symptoms: Irregular contraction of the muscles. Almost any part of the body may be affected, and even the tongue, the dog poking it out of the mouth constantly. But the disease more often affects the limbs, perhaps one fore leg and one hind leg, or the muscles of the shoulder and neck; occasionally the muscles of the abdomen, the dog always appearing to be suffering from hiccough. The temporal muscle is a common seat of chorea, and in such cases the dog is constantly snapping his teeth together. It is almost invariably the result of distemper.
Treatment: In bad cases the disease is incurable, though often with time—in the course of months—the twitching becomes less, but never entirely disappears. There is no specific for chorea; what appears to do one case good seems to do harm in another. Small doses of arsenic with bromide is sometimes a useful remedy, as the following mixture:—
Recipe: