He has seen
others almost eaten away by worms. Great writhing knots of them have
been ejected; they have been vomited; they have wriggled out of the
nostrils; they have perforated the stomach and wrought such damage
that most of the puppies succumbed, and those that survived were
permanently deficient in stamina and liable to go wrong on the least
provocating. The puppy that is free from worms starts life with a
great advantage.

CHAPTER LI

SOME COMMON AILMENTS OF THE DOG AND THEIR TREATMENT

The experienced dog-owner has long ago realised that cleanliness,
wholesome food, judicious exercise and a dry, comfortable and
well-ventilated kennel are the surest safeguards of health, and that
attention to these necessaries saves him an infinitude of trouble and
anxiety by protecting his dogs from disease. On the first appearance
of illness in his kennels the wise dog-owner at once calls in the
skill of a good veterinary surgeon, but there are some of the minor
ailments which he can deal with himself whilst he ought at least to be
able to recognise the first symptoms of the dreaded Distemper and give
first aid until the vet. arrives to apply his remedies and give
professional advice.

DISTEMPER.

Although more than one hundred years have elapsed since this was
first imported to this country from France, a great amount of
misunderstanding still prevails among a large section of dog-breeders
regarding its true nature and origin. The fact is, the disease came to
us with a bad name, for the French themselves deemed it incurable. In
this country the old-fashioned plan of treatment was wont to be the
usual rough remedies--emetics, purgatives, the seton, and the lancet.
Failing in this, specifics of all sorts were eagerly sought for and
tried, and are unfortunately still believed in to a very great extent.

Distemper has a certain course to run, and in this disease Nature
seems to attempt the elimination of the poison through the secretions
thrown out by the naso-pharyngeal mucous membrane.

Our chief difficulty in the treatment of distemper lies in the
complications thereof. We may, and often do, have the organs of
respiration attacked; we have sometimes congestion of the liver, or
mucous inflammation of the bile ducts, or some lesion of the brain or
nervous structures, combined with epilepsy, convulsions, or chorea.
Distemper is also often complicated with severe disease of the bowels,
and at times with an affecti