_Diet_: Milk, tripe, stewed rabbit, etc., with rice or bread, but avoid red meat. =Urticaria=: _See_ NETTLERASH. =Uterus, Inflammation of (Metritis)=: _Symptoms_: This disease generally occurs after heat, and is a condition which old bitches are more subject to than young ones. The exciting cause is generally due to something which stops the natural discharge, as a chill, the result of washing a bitch during heat, or from getting wet by rain. Once this disease has occurred it often follows every period of œstrum. The signs of inflammation of the womb do not come on very suddenly like other inflammations, there is for two or three days a loss of appetite and dulness, the bitch is thirsty, and if the temperature is taken, there will be generally found two or three degrees of fever. There is generally loss of flesh, though the abdomen will be noticed large and harder than usual, and painful to the touch. The symptoms gradually increase in severity, and the bitch becomes very ill and weak and refuses food of all kinds, and if forced with any it generally induces vomiting. About the third week there are signs of some discharge from the vagina, pinkish in colour and very offensive, which quickly increases in quantity and seems to pour away, a small bitch often getting rid of half a pint or more in a short time. Once the discharge commences, the bitch appears better, the temperature falls, she is brighter and is inclined to take some nourishment, but there is always a danger of the matter accumulating again. When the discharge does not come away through the natural passage, the womb ruptures, inducing acute peritonitis. Then there is a sudden collapse of the patient, the mouth and limbs go cold, the abdomen is very painful, the pulse becomes very rapid and almost imperceptible, and death occurs within twelve hours. _Treatment_: There is little to be done in these cases. The bitch should be kept very quiet, in a dry, warm place; hot linseed-meal poultices should be applied to the abdomen for four or five hours daily—of course, being changed from time to time. When the poultices are removed, a flannel bandage is to be placed round the abdomen. Hot boracic lotion should be freely pumped into the vagina night and morning to relax the neck of the womb. Medicine is generally not of much use, though, if the discharge does not come away, from a half to two[1] grains of permanganate of potash made into a pill with resin ointment, and given three times a day, is beneficial in some cases. It is important to keep the patient’s strength up. Give plenty of milk; if it is not retained try it with equal parts of Vichy water; also give Brand’s beef essence and raw-meat juice. Tripe and fish may also be tried, and when there is great weakness and food is not retained by the stomach, peptonised beef suppositories may be made use of. Small quantities of brandy occasionally do good.