If the cough be very troublesome and the fever does not run very high, the following may be substituted for this on the second or third day: Syrup of squills, 10 drops to 60; tincture of henbane, 10 drops to 60; sweet spirits of nitre, 10 drops to 60, in camphor water.
A few drops of dilute hydrochloric acid should be added to the dog's drink, and two teaspoonfuls (to a quart of water) of the chlorate of potash. This makes an excellent fever drink, especially if the dog can be got to take decoction of barley—barley-water—instead of plain cold water, best made of Keen and Robinson's patent barley.
If there be persistent sickness and vomiting, the medicine must be stopped for a time. Small boluses of ice frequently administered will do much good, and doses of dilute prussic acid, from one to four drops in a little water, will generally arrest the vomiting.
If constipation be present, we must use no rough remedies to get rid of it. A little raw meat cut into small pieces—minced, in fact—or a small portion of raw liver, may be given if there be little fever; if there be fever, we are to trust for a time to injections of plain soap-and-water. Diarrhoea, although often a troublesome symptom, is, it must be remembered, a salutary one. Unless, therefore, it becomes excessive, do not interfere; if it does, give the simple chalk mixture three times a day, but no longer than is needful.
The discharge from the mouth and nose is to be wiped away with a soft rag—or, better still, some tow, which is afterwards to be burned—wetted with a weak solution of carbolic. The forehead, eyes, and nose may be fomented two or three times a day with moderately hot water with great advantage.
It is not judicious to wet a long-haired dog much, but a short-haired one may have the chest and throat well fomented several times a day, and well rubbed dry afterwards. Heat applied to the chests of long-haired dogs by means of a flat iron will also effect good.
The following is an excellent tonic: Sulphate of quinine, 1/8 to 3 grains; powdered rhubarb, 2 to 10 grains; extract of taraxacum, 3 to 20 grains; make a bolus. Thrice daily.
During convalescence good food, Virol, Spratts' invalid food and invalid biscuit, moderate exercise, fresh air, and protection from cold. These, with an occasional mild dose of castor oil or rhubarb, are to be our sheet-anchors. I find no better tonic than the tablets of Phosferine. One quarter of a tablet thrice daily, rolled in tissue paper, for a Toy dog, up to two tablets for a dog of Mastiff size.
BRONCHITIS.
Dogs that have been exposed to wet, or that have been put to lie in a damp or draughty kennel with insufficient food, are not less liable than their masters to catch a severe cold, which, if not promptly attended to, may extend downward to the lining membranes of bronchi or lungs. In such cases there is always symptoms more or less of fever, with fits of shivering and thirst, accompanied with dullness, a tired appearance and loss of appetite. The breath is short, inspirations painful, and there is a rattling of mucus in chest or throat. The most prominent symptom, perhaps, is the frequent cough. It is at first dry, ringing, and evidently painful; in a few days, however, or sooner, it softens, and there is a discharge of frothy mucus with it, and, in the latter stages, of pus and ropy mucus.