Tonics, especially quinine, are indicated during this condition, as the discharge is very weakening.
When the appetite is very bad, the patient may be tempted with some giblet soup or a little well-stewed rabbit and bread, or rice. Very often, in bad cases, the dog absolutely refuses all food; he must then be drenched with strong meat tea, or with milk thickened with Benger’s food. When there is an inclination to diarrhœa, the beef tea and milk should be thickened with cornflour or arrowroot. One of the best ways of making meat tea is with beef, mutton, and veal, say half a pound of each cut up very fine; this should be gently simmered with a pint of water for three or four hours, and then strained off. Of this, from a tablespoonful[1] to a small teacupful may be given every three or four hours alternately with the milk food. In addition to this, if the dog will drink raw beef tea, which they will often do, it may be given freely. This is best made as follows: Half a pound of lean raw meat passed through a sausage machine; to this add half a pint of water, and place in an earthenware jar in front of a fire for two or three hours, stirring occasionally; then strain off through a cloth. Some pressure is required to get all the juice out of the meat. It requires to be made fresh every day. When the patient is very weak and exhausted, feeding is necessary every hour or two, as only very small quantities of food can be retained. Then strong meat extracts are required. Plasmon may also be tried mixed with milk, and Valentine’s meat juice with milk. Of this latter from fifteen[1] drops to a teaspoonful, with one[1] to four teaspoonfuls of milk. Invalid Bovril may be given instead of Valentine’s for a change in the same proportions, but fresh meat juice from raw meat is as strong as anything. As to stimulants, there is no doubt, when the dog is very low and the pulse weak, from ten[1] drops to a teaspoonful of brandy does good. When the dog is eating all right himself, it may be given in a little water after food, but when one is drenching the food it should be mixed with it.
There is no doubt that dogs who continue with a good appetite through distemper do much better, and have a better chance of recovering, no matter how severe the attack may be, than those bad feeders who refuse food and have to be drenched. A little food taken voluntarily does much more good than a lot forced upon the dog; therefore I advise tempting the patient with a variety of diet, so as to get him to eat something himself—of course, given in small quantities, particularly when the case is bad. I always commence with soup and milk alternately, mixed with bread, biscuits, or rice; as the dog gets tired of these, I add a little meat, say from a sheep’s head or stewed neck of mutton; for a change some fish, boiled tripe, or stewed rabbit, and if the dog goes off these I try scraped raw meat. I never commence forcing food if I can help it, for I find, once this is started, there is always a difficulty in getting the dog to eat anything himself.
As to medicine, the more experience one gets the more one finds this is quite secondary in treating distemper. I do not believe in specifics, and, do what one may, the disease under the best circumstances will run a certain course. In simple cases, where the temperature is not very high, an occasional mild dose of syrup of buckthorn and castor oil is often all that is required. This is necessary, as the dog cannot go out and take exercise; therefore the bowels often get constipated, and if this is neglected troublesome diarrhœa may occur. After the temperature is normal and remains so for a few days, and the dog does not feed well, then some tonic is useful, as the following:—
Recipe: The Pills:
| Salicylate of Quinine, | 12 grains. |
| Extract of Gentian, | 30 ” |
| Mix, and divide into 24 pills. | |
Dose: From half to two pills[1] to be given three times a day.
Quinine does not suit all dogs, for in some cases, instead of improving the appetite, for which it is given, it has the opposite effect, when the following mixture may be tried instead:—