In dogs the pulse may be felt by placing two fingers on the inner side of the knee. Dogs run from 90 to 100 per minute.
The heart usually beats four or five times to each breath the animal takes (when in condition of rest). There is also a variation in normal temperature according to the animal as follows:
| Animal | Normal Respiration | Normal Temperature |
|---|---|---|
| Horse | 8 to 10 per minute | 100.4 to 100.8 F |
| Cattle | 12 to 15 per minute | 101.8 to 102 F |
| Sheep, Goats | 12 to 20 per minute | 103.6 to 104.4 F |
| Hogs | 10 to 15 per minute | 103.3 average F |
| Dogs | 15 to 20 per minute | 100.9 to 101.7 F |
As this Veterinary Manual may fall into the hands of some who are not acquainted with its use, a few practical hints may be of service.
1st. Follow the directions.—Read and learn what the disease or condition is.—Then give the remedy in the doses, and at the intervals directed, as near as may be. Don’t think you know more about the doses or how much to give, or how often to give it, than the man who originated the system and wrote the book, and whose rules and observations are the result of very large experience.
2d. Don’t mix the Remedies with other medicines. They won’t act if you mix them up with other things; or bring the patient under the influence of other drugs, however harmless you may suppose them to be. The sure way of safety and success, is to trust to the Remedies alone. You will not improve the case by resorting to other medicines or other measures. If the patient does not improve as rapidly as you desire, a little rest will do no harm, and the kindly reaction may come on later.
3d. Don’t be in to great haste.—Medicines must have time to act and time to cure. In some cases, such as colics, neuralgias or nervous pains, the evidence of good action is prompt—almost immediately. In other slower, less pronounced, not so decided.
When you see the patient relieved.—less pain,—more quiet,—more natural,—easier, then you know that the remedy is acting curatively, and don’t interfere with it, by giving new doses or other remedies or medicines. Simply let the remedy act. Hurrying does not hurry the cure. When a good action has begun it will continue faster when quietly permitted to expend its action, than if doses are multiplied upon it. The time to repeat the dose is when the action of the former has ceased or begun to decline. The patient is in more danger from your doing too much, than too little, after a good action has been set up.
4th. Disease of the bones, joints and ligaments, only get well slowly. So of old chronic affections—such as “Spavin,” “Founder,” “Ringbone,” “Wind galls,” “Warts,” or other blemishes. A new action has to be set up in the implicated part, often a process of absorption and of reformation of tissue, and time must be allowed for these changes, through which only a cure can be made. Sometimes a good reaction is only produced after some days or even weeks use of the remedy. Such is nature’s way of cure and you cannot hasten it. So your true interest and true philosophy is, act patiently, perseveringly, if you would act successfully.
5th. The action of Humphreys’ Remedies continues a long time.