_Dose_: From sufficient to cover a sixpence to a dessertspoonful.[1] If a bitch has been in the habit of being regularly washed, this may be continued as usual, when the heat has passed, until about the seventh week, when it is not advisable to put the bitch right into warm water in case abortion might be induced. While on the subject of abortion, I may mention that a bitch ought never to be sent on a journey by train during the last two weeks, for a shaking of this kind is more likely to cause premature confinement than anything else I know. It is very important that the bitch should be quite clean at the time of parturition, and it is a good plan to wash the stomach and breast, also the vulva and surrounding parts, with a strong warm solution of Pearson’s fluid, about one in forty. Some treatment of this kind is more likely to prevent young puppies from having worms soon after birth than anything else. It is a common custom, and I think a very good one, to give a bitch in pup a dose of castor oil about three days before she is due. In many cases, especially when the bitch is a bit gross, it is advisable to give a dose of the oil a week before her time is up, and again in three or four days. Bitches, as a rule, have their puppies on the sixty-second or sixty-third day, the day of service being included; but some will pup on the sixtieth day, or even a day or so earlier, and the puppies may be fairly strong; but when born before the fifty-seventh day they seldom live. On the other hand, many, especially those of the larger breeds, will go two or three days over the specified time without inconvenience; and I have known one to go as long as seventy-three days, and then to have a litter of strong, healthy puppies, but this does not often occur when there is a large litter. One who is accustomed to dogs can tell within a few hours when a bitch is going to pup. There is disinclination for food, the vulva is swollen, and there is a discharge of thick mucus from the vagina, and, as a rule, she seeks a quiet spot to be alone.