HEMATURIA. 525 



Should the lesions heal successively, spontaneous recovery may take 

 place, but such recovery is exceptional. 



The animals may not appear to suffer from the passage of blood for 

 weeks or even months, but after a time they become less capable of 

 replacing the loss. They become anaemic, the number of corpuscles 

 falls from the normal figure of from six to seven millions of red cor- 

 puscles per cubic millimetre to three millions, two millions, one 

 million, and even to five hundred or eight hundred thousand. 



The richness in haemoglobin simultaneously diminishes ; wasting 

 progresses to the point of cachexia, and the appetite diminishes while 

 diarrhoea appears ; swellings are noticeable about certain parts of 

 the body ; and the animals, continuing to pass blood, die in a state of 

 absolute exhaustion, without apparent suffering. 



This termination is the most common, unless slaughter is determined 

 on, and is very different from the premature end which follows the for- 

 mation of clots and obstruction of the urethra. 



Externally the patients only show feebleness, pallor of the visible 

 mucous membranes, and difficulty in urination. The bunch of hair at 

 the lower commissure of the vulva is always soiled with blood-stained 

 urine or little clots. 



Heematuria may cause death by exhaustion in from six weeks to two 

 months, but not infrequently it lasts for months or even years. 



Diagnosis. The diagnosis presents no difficulty w^hen the urine 

 can be examined ; but in the periods of intermittence no opinion can 

 be advanced. These intermittences are so frequent that in parts of 

 the country ravaged by this disease it is a usual custom, when selling, 

 to grant or refuse guarantees for a longer or shorter term. 



The condition can be distinguished from parasitic haemoglobinuria 

 (piroplasmosis) or from Brou's disease (a febrile disease of rapid de- 

 velopment) by simply examining the urine or blood. 



Prognosis. The prognosis is extremely grave, for, up to the pre- 

 sent, no really efficacious treatment has been discovered, and although 

 some animals may live for years without their lives being in any way 

 endangered, this cannot possibly be foreseen, and there is no economic 

 advantage in keeping them. 



Treatment. No curative treatment is known. 



It is true that iron salts, tonics, Kabel's liquid, decoctions of cer- 

 tain plants, such as plantain, have been recommended, but apart 

 from the fact that they are of doubtful efficacy, they cannot be used 

 over long periods. All these preparations also tend to increase the 

 coagulability of the blood ; but considering that the disease is beyond 

 question of a parasitic character, good results cannot always be ex- 

 pected of them. 



