STONE IN THE BLADDER 199 



shaking or trembling of the muscles, and the restlessness and pain seem to 

 have disappeared. Pressing on the abdomen may produce great evidence 

 of pain, but in the majority of cases this is absent. After the first two 

 hours the abdominal wall is covered with a cold sweat, and the bladder 

 cannot be felt on manipulation. Soon a deep coma /rom which the ani- 

 mal cannot be roused sets in and dies in a short time. In rare instances 

 the animal may have convulsions, which occur with short intervals be- 

 tween them. Death may also occur before the bladder is ruptured, as a 

 consequence of extensive gangrenous cystitis with pyelitis. 



Therapeutics. — While the first procedure in treatment of stone is essen- 

 tially surgical, however in cases where the animal passes very small cal- 

 culi or sand-like particles and shows every evidence of the presence of 

 cystic calculi or where an animal passes small stones which lotlge at the 

 end of the penal bone and has to be operated on frequently, he should be 

 given large quantities of liquids or w^aters that are supposed to have 

 litholytic action — for instance, acids for dissolving phosphatic calculi, 

 alkalines for breaking up uric calculi, or lithia mineral waters, such as 

 A'ichy, Kissingen, Carlsbad. Or the l:)ladder may be washed out with 

 various solutions (see cystitis). In oxalate and cystic stone the animal 

 should be given all the water it will take. When the stone is present and 

 is causing retention of urine, there is nothing left then but to remove the 

 stone by means of an operation called urethrotomi) if the stone is lodged 

 in the urethra at the posterior end of the bones of the penis, or cystotomif 

 if the stone is located in the bladder; this operation is performed by open- 

 ing the urethra at the ischial arch, and by means of a small pair of forceps 

 introduced into the bladder, through the urethra, the stone is grasped and 

 crushed and afterward washed out of the bladder. In the ])itch an 

 incision is made into the short urethra and the stone is seized and 

 crushed in a like manner. 



When ischuria or stoppage of urine is present, the treatment depends 

 to a large extent on the location of the calculus — that is, whether it is in the 

 neck of the bladder or whether it has gone into the urethra some distance 

 and lodged there. In the first instance we can sometimes introduce the 

 catheter and by a gradual pressure we can push the stone into the bladder; 

 or if it is further in the urethra, we can push a well-lubricated catheter 

 past the stone and allow the escape of urine and prepare for the operation, 

 for if the stone is in the urethra this must be performed immediately. 



Urethrotomy. — This is usually performed from the posterior end of 

 the bone of the penis, as the great majority of uric calculi pass down the 

 urethra and lodge at the posterior end of the bone of the penis and can l)e 

 detected by the catheter; when this is passed and comes against the stone 

 there is a certain rough sound felt that resembles crepitation. Lay the 

 animal on tlie side or back, and after having injected cocaine into the skin 



