And these need veterinary diagnosis

And these need veterinary diagnosis

And these need veterinary diagnosis

All the other kinds of poison dogs are likely to get or be given work as irritants, and these need veterinary diagnosis. Salt, I may here remark, is so violent and irritating a purgative to the dog that it is next door to a poison, and the effects of castor oil in his intestine are not so very far behind. Constant drugging is a thing as much to be avoided in dogs as in their owners, and I cannot too strongly deprecate the foolish practice foolish or worse of giving doses of castor oil after shows, or as so-called prophylactics preventives of illness. If a dog has been much confined at a show, and is likely to be irregular in consequence, a little pure olive oil with his dinner (not the nut oil often sold by grocers as olive oil) will do no harm, although a dinner of oatmeal gruel or boiled sheep's liver would be much more sensible and act better; if he seems well and lively, leave him alone. Some people actually go the length of dosing their puppies with castor oil at intervals, for no reason that I can ascertain beyond a vague idea that it "clears the system." So it does of strength and the healthy mucoid secretion of the intestine, without which natural functions cannot be properly performed. Syrup of buck-thorn, or cascara sagrada, is another medicine that should never be given to small dogs: it is far too irritating and severe. When we have such excellent aperients as olive oil, magnesia, and rhubarb among drugs, and boiled sheep's liver among meats, we want no semi-poisonous irritant and violent drugs like castor oil, which, in the end, produce the very condition they were supposed to cure, and by pulling down the system, open the door to illness.