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437
Dogs and All about Them
·
Robert Leighton
416
CONSTIPATION,
more
commonly
called
costiveness,
is
also
a
very
common
complaint.
It
often
occurs
in
the
progress
of
other
diseases,
but
is
just
as
often
a
separate
ailment.
Perhaps
no
complaint
to
which
our
canine
friends
are
liable
is
less
understood
by
the
non-professional
dog
doctor
and
by
dog
owners
themselves.
Often
caused
by
weakness
in
the
coats
of
the
intestine.
The
exhibition
of
purgatives
can
only
have
a
temporary
effect
in
relieving
the
symptoms,
and
is
certain
to
be
followed
by
reaction,
and
consequently
by
further
debility.
Want
of
exercise
and
bath
common
cause.
Youatt
was
never
more
correct
in
his
life
than
when
he
said:
"Many
dogs
have
a
dry
constipated
habit,
often
greatly
increased
by
the
bones
on
which
they
are
fed.
This
favours
the
disposition
to
mange,
etc.
It
produces
indigestion,
encourages
worms,
blackens
the
teeth,
and
causes
fetid
breath."
Symptoms--The
stools
are
hard,
usually
in
large
round
balls,
and
defecation
is
accomplished
with
great
difficulty,
the
animal
often
having
to
try
several
times
before
he
succeeds
in
effecting
the
act,
and
this
only
after
the
most
acute
suffering.
The
faeces
are
generally
covered
with
white
mucus,
showing
the
heat
and
semi-dry
condition
of
the
gut.
The
stool
is
sometimes
so
dry
as
to
fall
to
pieces
like
so
much
oatmeal.
There
is
generally
also
a
deficiency
of
bile
in
the
motions,
and,
in
addition
to
simple
costiveness,
we
have
more
or
less
loss
of
appetite,
with
a
too
pale
tongue,
dullness,
and
sleepiness,
with
slight
redness
of
the
conjunctiva.
Sometimes
constipation
alternates
with
diarrhoea,
the
food
being
improperly
commingled
with
the
gastric
and
other
juices,
ferments,
spoils,
and
becomes,
instead
of
healthy
blood-producing
chyme,
an
irritant
purgative.
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