We ought to be fair to our dumb friends and helpers. Hints on their treatment will be a standing feature of “THE HOMOEOPATHIC WORLD.”.
DOGS TEETH AND EYES.
DOGS, like children, are often injured by the mistaken kindness of their masters. They are given “the same food as ourselves” at the table, which means pappy, over-cooked food which leaves no work for the teeth, food, moreover, which is deprived of the essential mineral elements, vitamins, etc., and which has been completely spoiled. All uncivilised people have magnificent teeth. All civilised nations have deplorable teeth. If we feed our dogs on the tasty but disastrously unwholesome food on which we subsist, they will suffer from all the diseases of civilisation, including bad teeth.
Teeth are made of lime, phosphorus, etc., and if we feed our dogs, as we feed ourselves, on white bread, milk puddings, over- cooked vegetables, done for appearances with soda, which ruins them, our dogs do not obtain the substances which are required to build up and maintain their teeth, and they do not obtain the essentials for keeping their veins and arteries, bones and nerves, digestion and eyes, in order. Thus our dogs are apt to become chronic invalids.
We carefully look after our dogs outsiders, a matter of relatively little importance, combing, brushing and washing them. A wisely fed, well exercised dog will probably have a rich, beautiful and glossy coat, even if no trouble is taken in combing and brushing him, while the coat of a frequently washed and brushed dog who is faultily fed will always look shabby, proclaiming to all the world that the poor beast is in bad health through faulty feeding.
Dogs should, as far as possible, be fed on natural entire food, meat, wholemeal bread white bread is a poison to humans and animals plenty of vegetables boiled without soda, as much as the dog likes, plenty of water, milk if he likes it, for it is rich in lime, and he should not know what sugar is, nor should his food be made tasty with condiments. Besides, he should have plenty of hard stuff to give exercise to his teeth. His teeth need exercise as much as his legs. Unfortunately town dogs have frequently diseased teeth, gums horrible to look at and a foul breath, exactly as have their masters, who vainly try to improve matters by antiseptic mouth washes, daintily perfumed, and such- like futilities.
A dog should have bones, but must not have bones which splinter. Give him bones with something to eat on them. In gnawing them, and he will gnaw them when hungry, he gives exercise to his teeth and jaws, and he obtains out of the bones lime needed by his system. Never allow a dog to have fish bones, or thin tubular bones such as poultry bones, which produce needle-sharp fragments which may perforate his stomach or bowels and cause him to die in agony.
Many town dogs suffer with their eyes. Inflammation, abundance of phlegm, are very frequent, and blindness is found in large numbers of dogs. Blindness is often caused by constipation, which in turn is created by the soft diet of civilisation. A dog whose eyes begin to show an opacity should be given an abundance of vegetables and liquid paraffin to establish free bowel action.
Dripping eyes, and eyes full of mucus, should be bathed with strong Indian tea, cold, and a few drops of it should be put into the eyes. The astringent action of the tea will promptly improve matters. Any eye drops employed for inflammation in humans will help inflammation of dogs eyes. If these simple measures do not suffice to put matters right, Mr. Bennetts book, Speedy Dog Cures by Homoeopathy, or any good book on the homoeopathic treatment of human beings should be consulted.
Dogs teeth, like human teeth, may require scaling. Tartar under the gum margin is particularly harmful. Otherwise pyorrhoea may result, and soft, spongy gums should be massaged. The teeth of a faultily-fed dog may decay or get loose through non-use. If the teeth do not meet, as in the case of a bulldog, they get loose and pyorrhoea develops, which can be noticed by an evil, bitter smell. Mercurius corrosivus is the indicated remedy for that condition. Unsound and unused teeth should be pulled out.
RICKETS IN PUPPIES.
DEAR SIR, A correspondent has asked me if I can throw any light on what produces rickets in puppies, whether the influences causing it occur before birth or after birth. I would like to answer this question through the columns of “THE HOMOEOPATHIC WORLD” as my views may be useful to other readers.
In the majority of cases of rickets, faulty feeding of the expectant mother is the cause. It is important to recognise the fundamental truth that the body, its organs and the bones, teeth and muscles, consist of millions of tiny cells, every one of which contains a nucleus. Each is a word in itself, and one of the most important elements in the structure and the functioning of the cell is calcium, or lime. Lime forms the substance of the bones. All the lime needed before birth for the building up of the bony structure of the puppy must be provided from the mothers tissues. Upon her ability to meet the demand made upon her depends the sturdiness of the puppys bones and the soundness of the constitution of her young.
Under ordinary circumstances all the calcium needed is obtained from the right kind of food. Bones, milk and wholemeal bread are very rich in lime. It may happen that the bitch does not get bones which she can crunch and that she may not be given any milk or wholemeal bread. On the other hand, it may be that these are provided but that the female fails to assimilate sufficient calcium from her diet. If there is a lime deficiency in the mother, the puppies are born with a deficiency of this important element, and the matter is made worse if the food given to a bitch with young is poor in lime, for then her milk will be deficient in this important element.
If people wish to have healthy, strong puppies, with good with strong bones and teeth, the bitch should be given bones, milk and wholemeal bread. She should never have white bread under any circumstances. Besides, the bitch in litter and the suckling bitch ought to be given Calcarea phosphorica 1x morning and evening for the sake of safety. There is no danger of overdosing the mother and puppies, as the mother and her young will absorb only as much lime as is actually needed, the surplus being excreted.
I have seen wonderful results from this treatment. Weak dog mothers may bring up sturdy young if they are given a diet rich in lime and additional lime in the homoeopathic form. A female which hitherto has produced only weak, puny and rickety pups will produce strong and healthy ones after a course of Calcarea phosphorica. Readers who will adopt this treatment will be highly satisfied. They should remember that dogs are meat-eating animals, that they need meat, and that our mixed, refined and devitaminised diet is not suitable for animals and is, in fact, not suitable for ourselves. Sunshine also is, of course, highly important in preventing rickets and cod liver oil is very helpful.
James Ellis Barker wrote a very large number of books, both under the name James Ellis Barker and under his real German name Otto Julius Eltzbacher, The Truth about Homœopathy; Rough Notes on Remedies with William Murray; Chronic Constipation; The Story of My Eyes; Miracles Of Healing and How They are Done; Good Health and Happiness; New Lives for Old: How to Cure the Incurable; My Testament of Healing; Cancer, the Surgeon and the Researcher; Cancer, how it is Caused, how it Can be Prevented with a foreward by William Arbuthnot Lane; Cancer and the Black Man etc.