The mother and her puppies should then be taken to a convenient out-building and treated with the same powder, which should be used generously and well worked into their coats.

This powder, by the way, is not at all likely to do mature dogs harm, but in very young puppies it may produce symptoms of poisoning, the most pronounced of which are extreme prostration and paralysis of the hind legs. Consequently, after it has been used and allowed to remain in the hair for about five minutes the most of it should be brushed or combed out. And he who need not be sparing of time should use the comb, - a fine one, - by which means he will remove many fleas that are apparently dead yet merely narcotized and promise to be as lively as ever in the course of an hour.

The mother, when released, will shake herself and throw off most of the powder from her coat, therefore she should be kept lying down and prevented from doing this for ten or fifteen minutes. Her breasts wiped with a cloth, and the floor swept - precautions necessary lest the powder get into the puppies' mouths - and new bedding, that has been lightly sprinkled with kerosene oil, put in, she and her little ones can be returned to their old quarters. And as a rule they will be comparatively free from the pests for two or three days, when the same procedures will again be demanded.

The treatment required by puppies infested by lice has been fully described under "Troublesome Insects," therefore it need not be gone into.

Those who breed should be fully alive to the fact that the milk secretion is susceptible to no small number of influences which may arrest it, deteriorate it, or even render it highly poisonous. And among them the painful emotions, as fear, grief and anger, are some of the most potent. Let a mother be the victim of either of these, the disquietude being intense or prolonged, and the chances are that for a time she will have much less milk; also that what she furnishes will cause colic, diarrhoea and perhaps much graver symptoms in her puppies. Consequently, to treat the nursing mother kindly, make her perfectly contented, and above all to prevent her from fighting, are essentials of the very greatest importance. And were either to be further emphasized it must be the last, for a hard fight, even if the wounds received are trifling, will sometimes so poison the milk it will actually kill puppies that are less than ten days old.

It should also be borne in mind that there are a number of drugs which when given the mother to some extent pass out in her milk and have their characteristic action upon her young. It follows, therefore, that to dose a nursing mother must be somewhat hazardous, and the safe rule is to give medicine to such only when its use is sanctioned by a physician or thoroughly educated veterinary skilled in canine diseases.

The same can be said of dosing puppies, excepting in colic and the presence of worms, in which affections persons of intelligence can be trusted to apply the simple measures of treatment that promise relief. And as no more favorable opportunity is likely to present, the measures essential in the former can be properly discussed here.

In colic keep the little patient very warm and give of the tincture of opium - laudanum - one drop for each week of life, every second hour until the moaning has ceased. That is, the dose in the first week of life should be one drop, in the second week two drops, and in the tenth, ten drops.

This dose and method of increase are proper and safe in early life, for all breeds excepting toys, for the largest of which the dose should be one-half a drop for every week, while from one-fourth to one-third of a drop will be sufficient for the smallest.

Doses adjusted by this rule may seem to the reader to be very large, yet they are simply moderate or medium, for laudanum and other preparations of opium have much less effect upon the canine than upon the human race; and in fact a dose that would deeply narcotize a man would scarcely have any appreciable effect upon a dog, especially if suffering from colic.

As for treatment of worms, the subject is so important and there is so much to be said upon it, an entire chapter, or more, can properly be devoted to it.

Considering that all men do not appreciate how essential fresh air is to their own health, and that there is a popular prejudice, not altogether confined to the uneducated, against it under certain conditions, its importance to canine mothers and their young is not likely to be felt in all instances, consequently there is necessity for emphasizing it here among the special requirements of early puppyhood.

It is simply impossible for a mother to retain her health and the integrity of milk secretion, or for her little ones to thrive, in a stagnant and vitiated atmosphere. And while all must invariably suffer greatly when fresh air in abundance is denied, the young suffer the most intensely from this cause, and under its influence their blood becomes poor and scanty, nutrition is greatly impaired and growth obstructed; and their vitality constantly lowering, they are easy victims to derangements, which are now singularly liable to end fatally, whereas in the presence of fairly good health they might have been resisted, or the resistant powers failing, more than likely they would soon have been recovered from.

None who have kept dogs need be told that the atmosphere of a room holding one of them soon becomes loaded with offensive emanations from the tenant's body. Now add to these impurities others, even in greater abundance, such as arise continually and from numberless sources wherever there is a litter of puppies, and contamination is so rapid that efficient and safe renewal is well-nigh impossible excepting in the mildest weather.

In considering the question of ventilation the quarters of nursing puppies may be likened to sick-rooms, for the tenants of the latter require much more fresh air than they would were they in good health, and yet the renewal of the contaminated air must be less rapid owing to the increased susceptibility to draughts. Puppies in proportion to their size need more pure air and suffer greater harm from bad air than mature dogs, and they, also, are feeble and highly susceptible to draughts. Consequently in both instances where artificial warmth is required, to secure good ventilation will never be easy, and always impossible without care and watchfulness.