992 Acute Nephritis. 



Parenchymatous inflammation alone does not cause any 

 functional, particularly generalized, disturbances. 



Acute diffuse nephritis occurs much more rarely than the 

 preceding form, and either develops as such from the start 

 or out of the parenchjT^natous inflammation. 



The rapidly increasing inflammatory infiltration causes 

 above all pain in the kidneys. The animals stand with feet 

 spread apart or bunched below the belly, they arch the back 

 and dislike to move; on moving they drag the hind legs and 

 show in general a certain stiffness. Pressure upon the region 

 of the kidneys causes the animals to depress the back. The 

 sensitiveness to pressure on the part of the kidneys may be 

 ascertained in large animals by rectal examination, in small 

 animals by external palpation. Palpation from the hollow 

 in the right flank may in cattle also be successful. Horses 

 often show symptoms of colic, trip back and forth, look around 

 toward the abdomen, at times they lie down carefully but soon 

 rise again. The£.e symptoms are not constant and are supple- 

 mented by depression, general debility, inappetence (in dogs 

 also vomiting) and fever. 



In a portion of the cases there is also pressure of urine, 

 and in stallions there may occur incomplete erections. Some- 

 times the animals void only little urine, in spite of repeated 

 efforts, perhaps only a few drops. This so-called strangury 

 appears especially in the nephritis produced by cantharides 

 or oil of turpentine. The diminished quantity of urine is one 

 of the most striking symptoms and in some cases the elimina- 

 tion may be suppressed entirely for several (even 5 to 7) days. 

 (Funk, Friedberger.) 



The appearance of oliguria finds a sufficient explanation in the reduced elim- 

 ination of water in the kidneys, owing to the retarded blood flow in the capillaries 

 of the glomeruli, also in the compression of the glomeruli and tlie obstruction of 

 the capillaries by numerous desquamated endothelia, further in the impeded outflow 

 of any secreted urine because the tubuli uriniferi are obstructed by renal epithelia 

 and casts or compressed by the interstitial infiltration. 



The urine is, especially at first, dark in color, reddish 

 or even brown-red, cloudy but without floccules; the specific 

 gravity is increased. The urine contains variable amounts, 

 usually one or several per cent, of albumen. The quantities 

 of the other nitrogenous substances (urea, uric acid) are 

 diminished, also that of NaCl and of the phosphates, because 

 of the involvement of the epithelia of the tubuli uriniferi. The 

 sediment is copious and consists of crystalline salts (uric acid, 

 acid sodium urate, calcium oxalate and carbonate), of granular 

 renal epithelial cells, hyaline, granular or epithelial casts, also 

 not rarely (always in the nephritis produced by sharp sub- 

 stances) red blood corpuscles and leucocytes; sometimes it 

 contains even bacteria. (Thomassen found numerous bacteria 

 in the urine of calves affected with septicemia [see p. 157].) 



