When these animals are sent to them

When these animals are sent to them

When these animals are sent to them

The treatment is simple. The dog must be put upon, and strictly kept upon, an allowance. Some persons, when these animals are sent to them, because the creatures are fat and sickly, shut the dogs up for two or four days, and allow them during the period to taste nothing but water. The trick often succeeds, but it is dangerous in severe cases, and needless in mild ones. This is a heartless practice, which ignorance only would resort to; but such conduct is very general, and the people who follow it boast laughingly of its effect. They do not care for its consequences. A weakly stomach cannot be benefited by a prolonged abstinence. I have kept a dog four-and-twenty hours without food, but never longer, and then only when the animal has been brought to me with a tale about its not eating. The report, then, is assurance that food has been offered, and the inference is that the stomach is loaded. A little rest enables it to get rid of its contents, and in some measure to recover its tone. The dog, as a general rule, does well on one meal a day; afterward, the food is regularly weighed, and nothing more than the quantity is permitted. This quantity may be divided into three or four meals, and given at stated periods, so that the last is eaten at night. When thus treated, animals, which I am assured would touch nothing, have soon become possessors of vigorous appetites. At the same time, exercise and the cold bath every morning is ordered; and either tonic or gentle sedatives, with alkalies and vegetable bitters, are administered. The following are the ordinary stomach-pills, and do very well for the generality of cases:

Extract of hyoscyamus	Sixteen grains.
Sodæ carb.	Half an ounce.
Extract of gentian	Half an ounce.
Ferri carb.	Half an ounce.