choice of remedies being guided by the symptoms. The practitioner,
however, must not forget that the mode of feeding has probably been the
cause; and, therefore, it must ever after be an object of especial care.
The cold bath and exercise, proportioned to the strength, are equally to
be esteemed.
Very old dogs often die from indigestion, and in such cases the stomach
will become inflated to an extent that would hardly be credited. These
animals I have not observed to be subject to flatulent colic; when,
therefore, the abdomen becomes suddenly tympanitic the gas is usually
contained in the stomach. Fits and diarrhoea may accompany or precede the
attack, which in the first instance yields to treatment; but in a month
more or less returns, and is far more stubborn. Ether and laudanum, by
mouth and enema, are at first to be employed; and, generally, they are
successful. The liquor potassae, chloride of lime in solution, and
aromatics with chalk, may also be tried, the food being strengthening but
entirely fluid. The warm bath is here highly injurious; and bleeding or
purging out of the question. When the distension of the stomach is so
great as to threaten suffocation, the tube of the stomach-pump may be
introduced; but, unless danger be present, the practitioner ought to
depend upon the efforts of nature, to support which all his measures
should be directed. After recovery, meat scraped as for potting, without
any admixture of vegetables, must constitute the diet; and while a
sufficiency is given, a very little only must be allowed at a time. With
these precautions the life may be prolonged, but the restoration of health
is not to be expected.
GASTRITIS
[Illustration]
Dogs are abused for their depraved tastes, and reproached for the filth
they eat; but if one of them, being of a particular disposition in the
article of food, takes to killing his own mutton, he is knocked on the
head as too luxurious. It is a very vulgar mistake to imagine the canine
race have no preferences. They have their likes and dislikes quite as
strong and as capricious as other animals. Man himself does not more
frequently impair his digestion by over indulgence than does the dog. In
both cases the punishment is the same, but the brute having the more
delicate digestion suffers most severely. The dog's stomach is so subject
to be deranged that few of these creatures can afford to gormandize; to
which failing, however, they are much inc
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