It is extraordinary how ignorant educated people, otherwise well informed, can show themselves on this subject. I have repeatedly received letters in which, after detailing a diet of milk puddings, oatmeal porridge, vegetables, bread and gravy, and so on, the writer gravely adds the assurance—"But I have never given a farinaceous diet!" Green vegetables and such starchy vegetables as potatoes are absolutely useless to dogs, and so indigestible as only to rank second to absolute poisons, like carrots and turnips. No dog can get the mineral salts necessary to healthy blood out of oatmeal, Indian corn meal, or any other meal, nor out of a little iron-hard, dried gristle or some similar substance, such as appears in some so-called "meat" foods. It can only get these substances out of its natural and proper food—meat. Puppies fed on meat from the time their teeth can bite it do not have anæmia, and are consequently free from skin trouble: their blood is rich and pure, and they do not harbour worms. I only ask any reader who doubts these statements to try the very simple experiment of separating a litter at seven weeks, and feeding half the pups on meat, of course varied, cut up small, and given in moderate quantity three times, and subsequently twice, a day, with a very small proportion of wheaten flour-stuff given merely as a treat and variety, in the form of small sweet biscuits or sponge cake, to afford the needful bulk to the meals. No gravy, milk, vegetables, nor any liquid but water to be given. The other pups in the litter can be fed on the old, artificial, unnatural plan of constant, large, sloppy meals of milk food. If the conditions are otherwise equal—plenty of fun, sunshine, and exercise being given—the difference between the two sets of pups will probably be quite sufficiently marked to uphold my argument, with the further addition that the meat-fed puppies will be found a good deal less objectionable in the house before their education begins, and infinitely easier to train, than their brethren on farinaceous diet.
In cases of anæmia, as shown by skin trouble, bareness round the eyes, poor or capricious appetite, languor, unpleasant breath, thinness, and a general look of unthriftiness, a liberal meat diet is the first essential, and plenty of fresh air—not necessarily hard exercise, for which the patient is generally unfit—the next. A tonic is always desirable, and iron the most suitable. There are several forms of this useful drug. Reduced iron can be given in very small dosage; sulphate of iron is cheap and useful in pill form: both of these have a tendency to constipate. The saccharated carbonate of iron is a beautiful preparation that does not constipate—is, indeed, a little laxative in action. It is a powder, tasteless except for sweetness, and will be taken readily enough if sprinkled on meat, or it can be made into pills with the addition of a tonic bitter, as in the form of the Kanofelin tonic pills. It is the most expensive of the forms of iron, but that is not saying much, as all are absurdly low in price. The dose for a toy is from two to four grains twice a day, in, or immediately after, food. Cod liver oil is a useful medicine in bad cases of anæmia, especially where, by reason of having or having inherited, this habit of body, a long-haired toy is always poor in coat. Some dogs never grow coats, merely because they have not the strength to do so, and others inherit sparseness of hair. But if there is any hair in reserve, a course of cod liver oil will help it on, and better far than plain cod liver oil is its preparation with malt. Cheap cod liver oil, however, is horrid, and should never be given. It will only act as a purgative, and be worse than useless. Nor should a dog ever be forced to take this substance if he has a dislike to it. But if the anæmic, scantily-coated patient will take it readily, a teaspoonful of some good brand of cod liver oil and malt extract, besides three grains of saccharated carbonate of iron twice a day, with meat diet, will make a most marvellously different dog of him in six weeks' or two months' time.
It is quite useless to give any tonic for a week or ten days, or irregularly. It must be given for a long time and with perfect regularity, or it does no good whatever: it must have time to be absorbed into the system, to permeate it, and be taken up by the blood.
Bad Teeth.—The existence of canker in dogs' teeth is generally another consequence of bad rearing and farinaceous feeding. Meat-fed pups, from meat-fed parents, have conspicuously good sound teeth, whereas among kennelled dogs it is not at all uncommon to find specimens of mouths cankered throughout, and this condition is certainly sometimes transmitted to the offspring. The teeth look deep yellow, or brown, the dental enamel is soft, and in bad cases they drop out. The gums are soft and spongy and pale. The disease being constitutional, little or nothing can be done to arrest the decay of the teeth, which luckily seems painless. The dog should be carefully fed on the most nutritious underdone meat, and the mouth may be washed out daily with a very weak solution of permanganate of potash: just enough of the crystals to tinge warm water pink being used. The best way to perform this little operation—one to which most dogs object very strongly—is to get someone to hold the head, with the nose pointing downwards, over a basin, and to introduce the nozzle of a gutta-percha ball syringe between the lips at the back of one side, letting it enter that spot in the jaw where there is a hiatus between the lower teeth. Two or three squeezes of the ball will then wash out the mouth pretty effectually.
This cankered condition of dogs' teeth may be brought about by the absorption of mercury into the system. A dog which had been troubled with very obstinate recurrent eczema, known to be inherited from ill-reared parents, was apparently cured as by magic when sent to a veterinary surgeon, who dressed him all over with mercurial ointment. The improvement in his condition continued for about three months, when it was discovered that he ate with difficulty. His mouth being examined, the teeth, previously sound, were found to be like so much dark, yellow-brown leather, and the gums sore. The next development was in the form of a cancerous growth in the posterior nares, and so the poor animal died, a victim to a cruel "fate," for which the surgeon had obtained the credit of a cure. Such cases are not at all uncommon.
Dental Caries, such as affects our own teeth when they decay and have to be stopped, occasionally, though luckily not often, distresses dogs. They may bruise the dental pulp inside a tooth by biting very hard on a bone, or by playing too roughly, and more especially by carrying stones, a very bad practice. The only thing to be done is generally to extract the tooth under chloroform, since it is difficult to find dog-dentists who will stop a decayed tooth. A dog with toothache, rubbing his face on the ground and crying, is a pitiable sight.
Abscesses between or on the Toes are a form of eczema, and should be treated constitutionally, as suggested under the heading of Anæmia, eczema's usual cause. Dogs will worry these sores, and must be prevented from doing so by having the foot encased in a sock made of strong washed calico, tied round the leg with tape. Before putting on the sock, dress the sore with iodoform powder or zinc ointment.
Docking Puppies.—Being docked is not an ailment nor an illness, but as a very sad conclusion may be put to a valuable pup's life by the operation carelessly performed, it is as well to say a word about it. Docking should never be left until the eyes open and the nervous system is fully organized. At such an age it is a piece of gross cruelty and the risk of hæmorrhage is enormously increased. Unless puppies are very weakly, they should be docked at five days old at latest. Happy is the owner whose Poms or Pugs require no such improvement! The Schipperke owner has been especially commiserated or vituperated, as the case might be, but as a matter of fact there is, in the hands of a competent surgeon, used to operate on these and other dogs, not one iota more risk or more pain or more difficulty than in dealing with a terrier. Docking should be done by a skilled veterinary surgeon, with proper antiseptic precautions. His hands and the strong scissors used are first made thoroughly antiseptic by washing in carbolic or some other antiseptic solution, and the operation can be done without the pup's losing any blood at all to speak of. The wounds are dressed with iodoform powder and tannic acid powder, mixed, and in one hour the mother, who should be sent out for a walk while the surgeon is in the house, will be admitted to them, and they will be sucking as if nothing had happened. Occasionally, owing to some idiosyncrasy of the individual, a puppy may bleed after docking, and therefore a careful watch must always be kept. If there is any hæmorrhage, bathe with very cold water in which alum has been dissolved, and apply a styptic, as tannic acid or perchloride of iron. But it is always well to ask the operator to remain for an hour or so, until all risk is over. The blood vessels very quickly seal up at their ends (to use untechnical language), and the tongue of the mother, when re-admitted after the necessary interval, will do no harm. Though docking is neither dangerous nor cruel when properly done on puppies so young that they have little or no sensation in their undeveloped nerves, it is a barbarism to let any ignorant person, as a groom or coachman, do it; and the dog owner who will not sacrifice her own possible repugnance sufficiently to co-operate with the skilled surgeon in seeing it properly done, at least owes it as a duty to her dumb dependents to pay him to take all reasonable care, and bring an assistant to hold them, and stay until they are quite safe and comfortable.
Bilious Attacks.—A slight chill, in east-windy times of year, or from any undue exposure to cold, will sometimes bring on a liver attack in dogs, while some are habitually subject to sick-headache after the manner of their owners. A bilious dog shivers, looks miserable, brings up a little yellow liquid or some froth, after a good deal of retching, and refuses to eat. Such an attack is always easy to diagnose, because the nose remains, as a rule, cold and moist, while there is no rise in temperature. The same symptoms, with feverishness, would probably mean commencing serious illness, necessitating skilled advice; but without rise of temperature are not important, unless they resist treatment and continue for longer than about twelve hours. The patient should be kept warm, covered up before the fire if the weather is severe, and given a soft pill of three grains of carbonate of bismuth and one grain of bicarbonate of soda, every four hours, until appetite returns.
Loss of appetite is a symptom which should never be disregarded. It may be quite right for the owners of sporting dogs to use the phrase so frequently heard: "Oh, if he won't eat, he's better without it," but want of appetite in a toy dog should never be a matter of indifference to the owner. It may, of course, arise only from previous over-eating, and over-fed dogs are certainly subject to bilious attacks which do not call for much sympathy; but it is always desirable to assure oneself that nothing more serious is the matter before dismissing the subject. In cases where loss of appetite is the precursor and accompaniment of illness, as in distemper, it would be most unwise to leave the dog to itself, and by allowing it to go without food, pull down the vitality and give the disease a firmer hold. As a general rule, a dog may be allowed to miss one meal without much anxiety; but, if a second is refused, inquisition should be made, and the temperature be taken, without loss of time. A clinical thermometer is a most useful adjunct in the dog-room, and any temperature over 100 degs. or 101 degs.—the former the dog's normal one—is suspicious. The easiest way of taking it is by inserting the instrument between the thigh and the body, and, as it were, holding these together, over it. Puppies will often refuse food simply because their gums are sore from teething, and here, again, it would be extremely foolish to let them go on in a state of semi-starvation. When a puppy is seen to pick up his food with his front teeth, shake each piece, and turn it over indifferently, it is a pretty sure sign that he cannot eat comfortably; if the natural process of cutting the teeth is in fault, all that need be done is to give minced meat and soft though dry food—a sponge cake will nearly always be willingly negotiated—and keep a watch to see that he gets enough to maintain him in good condition and pull him through the critical time; if, as is sometimes the case with an older dog, a too-lingering first tooth is setting up irritation and needs extracting, the vet's services must be requisitioned, as it is not advisable for any amateur to try his hand at canine dentistry. The main characteristic of the "new" or Stuttgart disease, or of gastritis, by the way, is inability to take food, the mouth being ulcerated, in addition to stomach complications; and here, again, commencing loss of appetite must be regarded with suspicion. Simple biliousness is not common among properly-fed dogs, but is sometimes brought on in individuals by what I may be so technically medical as to call idiosyncrasy—to wit, inability to digest certain foods. Many toy dogs cannot eat vegetables, which of course are to all unnatural and very indigestible, and others are invariably sick if they are given milk, and the dog can no more help these peculiarities than human beings similarly afflicted. Biliousness, brought on either by over-eating, a chill on the liver, or some unsuitable food, is easily recognized, and here abstinence for a while is advisable. The patient will be chilly, probably having cold paws, and may be sick several times, producing only a little yellow froth; most dogs eat grass and soon feel better, requiring no medicine; but if appetite does not return quickly, give a bismuth-and-soda pill every four hours, the proportion being three grains of bicarbonate of soda to one grain of carbonate of bismuth.