Special Report on Diseases of the HorseUnited States. Bureau of Animal Industry
Science
Special Report on Diseases of the Horse
United States. Bureau of Animal Industry
Horses -- Diseases
_Treatment._--Treatment may be begun by taking the animal out of
harness. This failing, spread clean litter beneath the belly or turn the
patient out on the dung heap. Some seek to establish sympathetic action
by pouring water from one vessel into another with dribbling noise.
Others soothe and distract the attention by slow whistling. Friction of
the abdomen with wisps of straw may succeed, or it may be rubbed with
ammonia and oil. These failing, an injection of 2 ounces of laudanum or
of an infusion of 1 ounce of tobacco in water may be tried. In the mare
the neck of the bladder is easily dilated by inserting two oiled fingers
and slightly parting them. In the horse the oiled hand introduced into
the rectum may press from before backward on the anterior or blind end
of the bladder. Finally, a well-oiled gum-elastic catheter may be
entered into the urethra through the papilla at the end of the penis and
pushed on carefully until it has entered the bladder. To effect this the
penis must first be withdrawn from its sheath, and when the advancing
end of the catheter has reached the bend of the urethra beneath the anus
it must be guided forward by pressure with the hand, which guidance must
be continued onward into the bladder, the oiled hand being introduced
into the rectum for this purpose. The horse catheter, 3-1/2 feet long
and one-third inch in diameter, may be bought of a surgical-instrument
maker.
PARALYSIS OF THE BLADDER.
Paralysis of the body of the bladder with spasm of the neck has been
described under the last heading, and may occur in the same way from
overdistention in tetanus, acute rheumatism, paraplegia, and hemiplegia,
in which the animal can not stretch himself to urinate, and in cystitis,
affecting the body of the bladder but not the neck. In all these cases
the urine is suppressed. It also occurs as a result of disease of the
posterior end of the spinal marrow and with broken back, and is then
associated with palsy of the tail, and, it may be, of the hind limbs.
_Symptoms._--The symptoms are a constant dribbling of urine when the
neck is involved, the liquid running down the inside of the thighs and
irritating the skin. When the neck is unaffected the urine is retained
until the bladder is greatly overdistended, when it may be expelled in a
gush by the active contraction of the muscular walls of the abdomen;
this never empties the bladder, however, and the oiled hand introduced
through the rectum may feel the soft, flabby organ still half full of
urine. This retained urine is liable to decompose and give off ammonia,
which dissolves the epithelial cells, exposing the raw, mucous membrane
and causing the worst type of cystitis. Suppression and incontinence of
urine are common also to obstruction of the urethra by stone or
otherwise; hence this source of fallacy should be excluded by manual
examination along the whole course of that duct.
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