When bones are deficient in earthy matter, we generally find rachitis present.

This disease, then, may even take place in the fcetus in utero, but the most common period is when the animals are young. It consists of a want of due firmness in the bones, in consequence of a deficiency in the phosphate of lime in their structure. The hones are lighter than natural, and of a red brown colour. They are penetrated by many enlarged vessels, being porous, and as it were spongy, soft, and compressible. They are moistened by a kind of tallies, which may be pressed out of their texture, as out of a sponge, or rather a macerated hide after it has been tanned. The walls of the medullary cylinder of the great bones of the extremities are very thin. Then again, all the affected bones, especially the long ones, acquire a remarkable suppleness, but if they are bent beyond a certain point they break.

Again, many rickety and deformed pups improve as they grow up, and acquire strength. The deformity of their limbs spontaneously diminishes, and the bones gain a proper degree of firmness, a due quantity of the phosphate of lime being deposited in their texture. Though the bones may never acquire their right shape, they become exceedingly firm. Still, it is a question whether the restoration of the proper figure of the bones can be promoted by the constant pressure of bandages and other mechanical appliances.

Young animals are liable to attacks of the acute form, known as joint-ill. It affects the articulations, causing lameness, with swelling of the joints, more especially the knees. The inflammation increases, so does the lameness; suppuration sets in, and the result is an open joint. This form terminates fatally, as the patient wastes and dies in great agony.

Causes

Insufficient supply of milk, and exposure to damp and cold; also where the water is soft and deficient in lime salts, one of the essential constituents of bone.

Treatment

As the causes here are removable, you must attend to them, but with careful management you need hardly ever be troubled with the disease, as its prevention is easy and better than cure. In the chronic or sub-acute form, the shaft of the bone towards its extremities begins to bend. This will not happen until the animal is a few months old. Commence at once by giving an excess of lime water, with the best food and shelter you can command. Be careful that your kennels are kept dry. Put splints on the limbs; bandage up, but not too tight, just as if you were setting a broken bone, and the probability is, that it will again recover something like its former shape. Perseverance should be maintained until the dog is say ten months old. But if at the expiration of this time there is no appreciable improvement, why then the pond or a dose of poison must terminate the unfortunate animal's existence. There are a few other bone diseases, but as they are of rare occurrence we take leave of the subject here and concentrate our attention upon