CHAPTER XXXH. 



DISEASES OF THE URINARY ORGANS. 

 INFLAMMATION or THE KIDNEYS. 



Inflammation of the kidneys occurs sometimes as an epizootic 

 in lambs, and is probably caused by an organism as yet unidentified. 

 Absorption of mercurial and other preparations may be held to 

 account for a few cases, and in the newly shorn chills may easily be 

 the cause. 



Symptoms. Arching of the back and grinding the teeth, and 

 frequent attempts to urinate without passing any water, or only 

 a very little, and that extremely high coloured. 



Treatment. Mustard to the loins, a laxative dose of linseed 

 oil, and twice daily, ten-grain doses of salicylate of sodium in 

 water. Red water is not a disease of the urinary organs ; they 

 merely act as channels. See Blood Diseases. 



KIDNEY STONES. 



These are sometimes the cause of inflammation ; more often 

 they are not discovered during life. Nothing can be done by 

 way of treatment ; or nothing that would be worth while from 

 the economic point of view. 



STOPPAGE OF THE UBINE. 



This trouble is practically confined to the male. A block may 

 occur at any portion of the tortuous urethral canal, but in practice 

 we seldom meet with calculi of any size or high up, but frequently 

 have trouble with rams fed too largely on " roots," and more 

 particularly turnips ; the deposit being of a sandy or sabulous 

 nature near the end of the penis, which is corkscrew-like and, from 

 its resemblance to a worm, called the vermiform appendix. 



Symptoms. Inability to urinate, or dribbling of urine, and 

 interrupted flow, with signs of discomfort, and desire to pass more. 



Treatment. The ram should be turned, and the penis and sheath 

 carefully examined. In many cases the finger-nail will enable one 

 to scrape away the sandy matter, and little crystals or mixtures 



