These are similar to the boils in human beings and are due to the same causes, that is, they indicate either a poverty of the system and a general weakness, or they may be the result of plethora and too much blood.

They also follow diseases like distemper and are not uncommonly induced by worms. Boils are very painful and make the dog cross. They appear, usually, where the skin is thinnest. Their first appearance is in the form of small red swellings, which enlarge, become hot and painful and eventually break and discharge their contents. They usually appear on the inside of the thighs and bellies of young puppies when suffering with distemper or worms. If accompanying distemper they should not be treated, but at other times the proper thing to do is to reform the diet, give more green food, bathe oftener, exercise more and when the boils are soft and ripe open them with a sharp knife and dress with an antiseptic solution.

This term, being in common use, is well understood. Boils are not very common on the dog; when they appear a poultice of some kind should, if practicable, be kept constantly applied, in order to bring the boil quickly to a head, when it should be opened with a lancet, the matter well squeezed out of it, the part well washed with tepid water, and then dressed with the following ointment: Turner's Cerate (Ceratum calamine), 1 oz.; precipitated chalk and glycerine, and carbolic acid, each 2 dr.; mixed. If bicarbonate of soda - dose, ten grains for a 30 lb. dog - be given three times a day it will check the tendency to form boils. Smaller toy dogs use five-grain doses, large breeds fifteen-grain doses.