128 URINARY DEPOSITS 



Horses and dogs are liable to suffer from urinary deposits, 

 which are sometimes found in the kidney, but more com- 

 monly in the bladder, and in male animals in the tract of the 

 long urethra. In horses, as in other herbivora, urinary 

 deposits consist mainly of calcium and magnesium salts, 

 sometimes derived directly from drinking water, from earthy 

 matters mixed with fodder or grain, or from lime salts, 

 abundant in clovers and other fodder, which unite with the 

 carbonates produced by oxidation of the vegetable acids also 

 present in the food. These calcareous deposits are some- 

 times in a finely-divided sabulous state ; sometimes they are 

 aggregated into masses or calculi. Whether occurring as 

 sediment, gravel, or stone, they cause more or less difficulty, 

 straining, and pain in urination ; the stream is interrupted, 

 and from irritation of the lining membrane of the passage the 

 urine usually contains excess of mucus ; while the portions 

 last discharged are often turbid. When such symptoms are 

 caused by a calculus in the bladder, medical treatment is 

 unavailing. No medicine can be safely given in sufficient 

 amount or sufficiently concentrated to dissolve calcareous 

 urinary deposits within the body. Hence a stone which 

 cannot be naturally discharged can only be removed by a 

 surgical operation. When small it may be extracted by 

 lithotomy ; when large or of awkward shape, it should be 

 crushed and removed in pieces. Calcareous sediment can 

 usually be got rid of in great part, or entirely, by giving 

 liberal supplies of barley water, linseed tea, or other diluents ; 

 or with a syringe and flexible catheter the bladder may be 

 filled with tepid water, and deposits thus washed out. 

 Successive quantities of water may be introduced until they 

 come away tolerably clear. 



LITHONTRIPTICS are defined as remedies which prevent 

 deposit of solids from the urine, or cause their resolution. 

 In veterinary patients, as already indicated, they cannot 

 resolve calculi, although they may promote their removal, 

 and may check their formation. Such preventive treat- 

 ment in the case of horses mainly consists in furnishing 

 abundant, regular, and pure supplies of drinking water. 

 Waters rich in calcareous matters are theoretically more 

 liable to deposit such earthy constituents, especially under 



