LETTER VIII

You desire to know if there be any remedy for the distemper among dogs: I shall therefore mention all the disorders that my hounds have experienced, and point out the remedies which have been of service to them. The distemper that you inquire about, is, I believe, the most fatal (the plague only excepted) that any animal is subject to: though not long known in this country, it is almost inconceivable what numbers have been destroyed by it in so short a period; several hundreds I can myself place to this mortifying account. It seems happily to be now on the decline; at least, is less frequent, and more mild; and probably, in time, may be entirely removed. The effects of it are too generally known, to need any description of them here—I wish the remedies were known as well!¹

A brother sportsman communicated to me a remedy, from which, he said, his hounds had found great benefit, viz. an ounce of Peruvian bark in a glass of Port wine, taken twice a day. It is not infallible, but in some stages of this disorder, is certainly of use. The hound most infected that ever I knew to recover, was a large staghound: he lay five days, without being able to get off the bench, receiving little nourishment during the whole time of the disorder, except this medicine, with which he drank three bottles of Port wine. You may think, perhaps, that the feeder drank his share; and, probably, he might, had it not been sent ready mixed up with the bark. I once tried the poudre unique, thinking it a proper medicine for a disorder which is said to be putrid; but I cannot say anything in its favour, with regard to dogs at least. Norris’s drops I have also given, and with success. I gave a large tablespoonful of them in an equal quantity of Port wine, three times a day: as the dog grew better, I lessened the quantity. When dogs run much at the nose, nothing will contribute more to the cure of them than keeping that part clean: when that cannot conveniently be done, emetics will be necessary: the best that I know is, a large spoonful of common salt, dissolved in three spoonfuls of warm water.² The first symptom of this disorder, generally, is a cough. As soon as it is perceived among my young hounds, great attention is paid to them. They have plenty of clean straw, and are fed oftener and better than at other times: so long as they continue to eat the kennel meat, they are kept together; as soon as any of them refuse to feed, they are removed into another kennel; the door of the lodging-room is left open in the day, and they are only shut up at night: being out in the air, is of great service to them. To such as are very bad, I give Norris’s drops; to others, emetics; while some only require to be better fed than ordinary, and need no other remedy.³ They should be fed from the kitchen, when they refuse the kennel meat. Sometimes they will lose the use of their hinder parts: bleeding them, by cutting off the last joint of the tail, may perhaps be of service to them. I cannot speak of it with any certainty; yet I have reason to think that I once saved a favourite dog by this operation. In short, by one method or another, I think they may sometimes be recovered.

The likeliest preservative for those that are well, is keeping them warm at night, and feeding them high. This disorder being probably infectious, it is better to provide an hospital for such as are seized with it, which should be in the back part of the kennel. There is no doubt that some kennels are healthier than others, and consequently less liable to it. I apprehend mine to be one of those; for, in a dozen years, I do not believe that I have lost half that number of old hounds, although I lose so great a number of whelps at their walks. Neighbouring kennels have not been equally fortunate: I have observed in some of them a disorder unknown in mine; I mean a swelling in the side, which sometimes breaks, but soon after forms again, and generally proves fatal at last. I once heard a friend of mine say, whose kennel is subject to this complaint, that he never knew but one instance of a dog that recovered from it. I have, however, since known another, in a dog that I had from him, which I cured by frequently rubbing with a digestive ointment: the tumour broke and formed again several times, till at last it entirely disappeared. The disorder that we have now been treating of has this, I think, in common with the putrid sore throat, that it usually attacks the weakest. Women are more apt to catch the sore throat than men; children than women; and young hounds more readily catch this disorder than old. When it seizes whelps at their walks, or young hounds when first taken from them, it is then most dangerous. I also think that madness, their inflammatory fever, is less frequent than it was before this disorder was known.

There are few disorders to which dogs are so subject as the mange. Air and exercise, wholesome food, and cleanliness, are the best preservatives against it. Your feeder should be particularly attentive to it; and when he perceives any spot upon them, let him rub it with the following mixture:

If the disorder should be bad enough to resist that, three mild purging balls (one every other day) should be given, and the dog laid up for a little while afterwards. For the red mange, you may use the following:⁴

The quicksilver and turpentine are to be rubbed together till the globules all disappear. When you apply it, you must rub an ounce (once a day) upon the part affected, for three days successively. This is to be used when the hair comes off, or any redness appears.

How wonderful is the fatigue which a fox-hound undergoes! Could you count the miles that he runs, the number would appear almost incredible. This he undergoes cheerfully, and perhaps three times a week through a long season: his health, therefore, well deserves your care; nor should you suffer the least taint to injure it. Huntsmen are frequently too negligent in this point. I know one in particular, a famous one too, whose kennel was never free from the mange; and the smell of brimstone was oftentimes stronger, I believe, in the noses of his hounds than the scent of the fox. If you choose to try a curious prescription for the cure of the mange, in the Phil. Trans. No. 25, p. 451, you will find the following:

“Mr. Cox procured an old mongrel cur, all over mangy, of a middle size; and having some hours before fed him plentifully with cheese-parings and milk, he prepared his jugular vein; then he made a strong ligature on his neck, that the venal blood might be emitted with the greater impetus; after this, he took a young land spaniel, about the same bigness, and prepared his jugular vein likewise, that the descendant part might receive the mangy dog’s blood, and the ascendant discharge his own into a dish: he transfused about fourteen or sixteen ounces of the blood of the infected into the veins of the sound dog. By this experiment there appeared no alteration in the sound one; but the mangy dog was, in about ten days or a fortnight’s time, perfectly cured; and possibly this is the quickest and surest remedy for that disease, either in man or beast.”

Hounds sometimes are bitten by vipers. Sweet-oil has been long deemed a certain antidote: some should be applied to the part, and some taken inwardly; though a friend of mine informs me, that the common cheese-rennet, externally applied, is a more efficacious remedy than oil, for the bite of a viper. They are also liable to wounds and cuts: Friar’s balsam is very good, if applied immediately; yet, as it is apt to shut up a bad wound too soon, the following tincture, in such cases, may perhaps be preferable, at least after the first dressing or two:

The bottle should be well corked, and put into a barkbed, or dunghill, for about ten days or a fortnight. The tongue of the dog, in most cases, is his best surgeon; where he can apply that, he will seldom need any other remedy. A green, or seton, in the neck, is of great relief in most disorders of the eyes; and I have frequently known dogs, almost blind, recovered by it: it is also of service when dogs are shaken in the shoulders, and has made many sound. In the latter case, there should be two, one applied on each side, and as near to the shoulder as it is possible. The following ointment may be used to disperse swellings:

The gum is to be melted with the suet, and, when taken from the fire, the turpentine is to be mixed with it, straining the mixture while it is hot. Dogs frequently are stubbed in the foot. The tincture before mentioned, and this, or any digestive ointment, will soon recover them.⁶ For strains, I use two-thirds of spirits of wine, and one of turpentine, mixed up together: the British oil is also good. Hounds, from blows, or other accidents, are often lame in the stifle: either of these, frequently applied, and long rest, are the likeliest means that I know of to recover them. The following excellent remedy for a strain, with which I have cured myself and many others, I have also found of benefit to dogs, when strained in the leg or foot:

Dissolve two ounces of camphor in half a pint of spirits of wine, and put to it a bullock’s gall. The part affected must be rubbed before the fire three or four times a day.

Sore feet are soon cured with brine, pot-liquor, or salt and vinegar; a handful of salt to a pint of vinegar: if neither of these will do, mercurial-ointment may then be necessary. A plaster of black pitch is the best cure for a thorn, in either man, horse, or dog; and I have known it succeed after everything else had failed. If the part be much inflamed, a common poultice bound over the plaster will assist in the cure. Hounds frequently are lame in the knee, sometimes from bruises, sometimes from the stab of a thorn: digestive ointment rubbed in upon the part, will generally be of service.⁷ I have also known good effects from a poultice of Goulard, changed two or three times a day: it must be sewed on, the dog kept by himself, and muzzled.

If hounds be much troubled with worms, the following is the best cure that I am acquainted with:

This is to be taken three times: every other day, once: the dog should be kept warm, and from cold water. Whey, or pot-liquor, may be given him two or three hours after, and should be continued, instead of meat, during the time that he is taking the medicine. The best way of giving it, is to mix it up with butter, and then to make it into balls with a little flour.

When a dog is rough in his coat, and scratches much, two or three purging balls, and a little rest afterwards, seldom fail to get him into order again. To make dogs fine in their coats you should use the following dressing:

My hounds are dressed with it two or three times only in a year: in some kennels, I am told, they dress them once in two months. The more frequently it is done, the cleaner, I suppose, your hounds will look. Should you choose to dress your puppies before they are put out to their walks, the following receipt, which I received from a friend of mine in Staffordshire (the person already mentioned in this Letter, an excellent sportsman, to whom I have many obligations), will answer the purpose best; and on their change of diet, from milk to meat, may be sometimes necessary:

Instinct directs dogs, when the stomach is out of order, to be their own physician; and it is to their example that we owe our knowledge how to relieve it. It may appear foreign to our present purpose; yet as it is much (if true) to the honour of animals in general, I must beg leave to add what a French author tells us—that also by the hippopotamus we are instructed how to bleed, and by the crane how to give a clyster. I have already declared my disapprobation of bleeding hounds, unless they absolutely want it: when they refuse their food, from having been over-worked; or when they have taken a chill, to which they are very subject; then the loss of a little blood may be of use to recover them. Sick hounds will recover sooner if suffered to run about the house, than if they be confined in the kennel.

Madness, thou dreadful malady, what shall I say to thee; or what preservative shall I find against thy envenomed fang! Somerville, who declines writing of lesser ills, is not silent on the subject of this.

I wish this worthy gentleman, to whom we have already been so much obliged, had been less sparing of his instructions; since it is possible that grooms may not have all the knowledge he supposes them to have, and their masters may stand in need of it. No man, I believe, will complain of being too well informed; nor is any knowledge unnecessary which is likely to be put in practice. The executive part is fully sufficient to trust in a groom’s hands. Somerville’s advice on the subject of madness is worth your notice:

Plenty of water, whey, greens, physic, air, and exercise, such as I have before mentioned, have hitherto preserved my kennel from its baneful influence; and, without doubt, you will also find their good effects. If, notwithstanding, you should at any time have reason to suspect the approach of this evil, let your hounds be well observed at the time when they feed: there will be no danger while they can eat. Should a whole pack be in the same predicament, they must be chained up separately: and I should be very cautious what experiment I tried to cure them; for I have been told by those who have had madness in their kennels, and who have drenched their hounds to cure it, that it was the occasion of its breaking out a long time afterwards, and that it continued to do so as long as they gave them anything to put it off. If a few dogs only have been bitten, you had better hang them. If you suspect any, you had better separate them from the rest; and a short time, if you use no remedy, will determine whether they really were bitten or not. Should you, however, be desirous of trying a remedy, the following prescription, I am told, is a very good one:

This is to be given for three mornings successively; beginning the first day with eight grains, and increasing it according to the above direction. The dog should be empty when he takes it, and should have been bled the day before. The dose should be given early in the morning, and the dog may have some thin broth, or pot-liquor, about two or three o’clock, but nothing else during the time he takes the medicine; he should also be kept from water. The best way to give it is in butter, and made up into balls with a little flour. Care must be taken that he does not throw it up again. After the last day of the medicine, he may be fed as usual. Various are the drenches and medicines which are given for this disorder, and all said to be infallible: this last, however, I prefer. The whole pack belonging to a gentleman in my neighbourhood were bitten; and he assures me, he never knew an instance of a dog who went mad that had taken his medicine. The caution which I have recommended to you, I flatter myself will preserve you from this dreadful malady; a malady for which I know not how to recommend a remedy. Several years ago I had a gamekeeper much bitten in the fleshy part of his thigh: a horse that was bitten at the same time died raving mad: the man was cured by Sir George Cobb’s medicine. I have heard that the Ormskirk medicine is also very good. I have given it to several people in my neighbourhood, and, I believe, with success; at least I have not, as yet, heard anything to the contrary. Though I mention these as the two most favourite remedies, I recommend neither. Somerville’s advice, which I have already given, is what I recommend to you: if properly attended to, it will prevent the want of any remedy.

P.S.—A Treatise on Canine Madness, written by Dr. James, is worth your reading. You will find that he prescribes the same remedy for the cure of madness in dogs as I have mentioned here, but in different quantities. I have, however, taken the liberty of recommending the quantities above mentioned, as they have been known to succeed in my neighbourhood, and as the efficacy of them has been very frequently proved.

[¹All remedies to be of use in distemper must be given in the earlier stages of the disease. Directly a hound shows symptoms he should be isolated, and dosed with Gillard’s compound or quinine until the fever abates, being kept meanwhile in a warm dry place, free from draughts. Eyes and nose should be sponged clean twice a day with tepid water, in which there is a little disinfectant. When the fever has gone, Pacita will he found a very useful tonic to restore the hound to health again. Like influenza in man, it is the ailments that are left behind that generally prove fatal in distemper. Each sick hound should have a small kennel to itself, with plenty of clean dry straw on the bench, and creosoted sawdust on the floor, which should not be swilled down. The droppings should be shovelled up and either burnt or covered with quicklime. They are the frequent cause of infection from one season to the other, the germs probably lying dormant and breeding in the ground.]

²The quantity of salt must be proportioned to the size of the dog, and to the difficulty there may be to make him vomit.

³Hounds that have the distemper upon them have but little appetite. By feeding two or three together, they eat more greedily.

[⁴We are told that there are three distinct types of mange, but there are probably several variations of each. This mixture, when well rubbed into the skin, will be found a cure for nearly every variety: 1 lb. black sulphur, 1 pint train oil, ¼ pint turpentine, ½ lb. Stockholm tar, 2 ozs. glycerine.]

⁵Turning a hound out of the kennel will sometimes cure a lameness in the shoulders. An attentive huntsman will perceive, from the manner of a hound’s galloping, when this lameness takes place; and the hound should be turned out immediately. Care should be taken, that a hound turned out do not become fat.
    [Hounds supposed to be shaken in the shoulders are generally suffering from a kennel lameness. The only remedy is to turn out of kennel and let them run loose.]

⁶An obstinate lameness is sometimes increased by humours: physic, in that case, may be necessary to remove it.

⁷If the knee continue foul, blisters, and long rest afterwards, are the most likely means to recover it.