Disease in captive wild mammals and birds : $b incidence, description, comparisonFox, Herbert
Science
Disease in captive wild mammals and birds : $b incidence, description, comparison
Fox, Herbert
Veterinary medicine
Renal disease is quite common among wild animals albeit there are
certain orders in which the lesions are less conspicuous. Clinical
diagnoses of nephritis, and this is the only diagnosis attempted, have
been made on monkeys by examination of urine which shows the same
characters as in the human disease. In ungulates more attention is to be
placed upon the cellular contents of the urine since renal epithelium is
apparently shed more readily and casts less often formed. Signs and
symptoms of renal disease are limited to edema and uremia; cases of the
latter are rare enough to discuss separately at the proper place.
ABSENCE OF ABNORMALITIES.
Abnormalities of size, shape and position of the kidney are frequently
reported in literature of veterinary medicine and aplasia has been
described. Our material has failed to present cases of horse-shoe kidney
well known to occur in horses, cows, sheep and dogs. Wandering kidneys
are also known but have not been seen in our wild animals. Shall these
abnormalities be considered as due to degenerative changes in cross bred
animals or as the result of the strain of domestication? To such a
speculative question our material affords no answer.
HYPERTROPHY.
That the kidney has the power of hypertrophy in a compensatory manner is
illustrated by two cases. A Japanese Macaque (_Macacus fuscatus_) ♂
apparently had suffered with a unilateral nephritis which had gone into
a contracted stage. At all events much functionating tissue was gone,
the organ irregular and small, being half or less of the size of the
other organ which was larger than is considered normal for the species.
Histologically the large organ was practically normal. A common opossum
(_Didelphys virginiana_) suffered with a complete suppurative nephritis
of the right side which completely destroyed the organ; the origin of
this is not clear as no ascending disease could be determined and no
certain acute infection had existed; decomposition precluded
satisfactory bacteriology. The left kidney was nearly twice its normal
size and involved in an early diffuse nephritis, with miliary abscesses,
in which the glomeruli did not participate. There were in these sections
evidences of regeneration, swollen reduplicated epithelial coverings
presenting a picture similar to those seen in so-called chronic
nephritis secondary to interstitial change.
INFILTRATIONS.
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