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
_Symptoms._--The symptoms are slight or severe colicky pains; the animal
moves his hind feet uneasily or even kicks at the abdomen, looks around
at his flank, and may even lie down and rise frequently. More
characteristic are frequently repeated efforts to urinate, resulting in
the discharge of a little clear, or red, or more commonly flocculent
urine, always in jets, and accompanied with signs of pain, which persist
after the discharge, as shown in continued straining, groaning, and
perhaps in movements of the feet and tail. The penis hangs from the
sheath, or in the mare the vulva is frequently opened and closed, as
after urination. The animal winces when the abdomen is pressed in the
region of the sheath or udder, and the bladder is found to be sensitive
and tender when pressed with the oiled hand introduced through the
rectum or vagina. In the mare the thickening of the walls of the bladder
may be felt by introducing one finger through the urethra. The
discharged urine, which may be turbid or even oily, contains an excess
of mucus, with flat shreds of membrane, with scaly epithelial cells, and
pus corpuscles, each showing two or more nuclei when treated with acetic
acid, but there are no microscopic tubular casts, as in nephritis. If
due to stone in the bladder, that will be found on examination through
rectum or vagina.
_Treatment_ implies, first, the removal of the cause, whether poisons in
feed or as medicine, the removal of Spanish flies or other blistering
agents from the skin, or the extraction of stone or gravel. If the urine
has been retained and decomposed it must be completely evacuated through
a clean catheter, and the bladder thoroughly washed out with a solution
of 1 dram of borax in a quart of water. This must be repeated twice
daily until the urine no longer decomposes, because so long as ammonia
is developed in the bladder the protecting layer of epithelial cells
will be dissolved and the surface kept raw and irritable. The diet must
be light (bran mashes, roots, fresh grass), and the drink impregnated
with linseed tea, or solution of slippery elm or marsh mallow. The same
agents may be used to inject into the rectum, or they may even be used
along with borax and opium to inject into bladder (gum arabic 1 dram,
opium 1 dram, tepid water 1 pint). Fomentations over the loins are often
of great advantage, and these may be followed or alternated with the
application of mustard, as in paralysis; or the mustard may be applied
on the back part of the abdomen below or between the thighs from the
anus downward. Finally, when the acute symptoms have subsided, a daily
dose of buchu 1 dram and nux vomica one-half dram will serve to restore
lost tone.
IRRITABLE BLADDER.
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