DISEASES OF THE URINARY ORGANS. 209 



part of the belly inferiorly. Give belladona extract (i to 2 

 drachms), cantharides (i to 3 grains), or nux vomica (^ drachm 

 for large herbivora). 



INFLAMMATION OF THE BLADDER. CYSTITIS. 



Causes. — Abuse of diuretics, acrid diuretic plants in the food, 

 the application of blisters (Spanish flies, turpentine), over too 

 extensive surfaces, prolonged retention and decomposition of 

 urine, irritation from stone in the bladder, etc. 



Symptoms. — If confined to the mucous membrane, urine is 

 passed frequently, painfully, in small quantities, with more or 

 less floating mucus and flat, microscopic, fibrinous shreds of 

 exudation entangling columns'- or scaly epithelium. The 

 bladder is very tender to the touch, and if the finger is passed 

 into it in the female its neck and walls are felt to be thickened, 

 sometimes enormously. There are colicky pains, frequent 

 looking at the flanks, uneasy movements of the hiud feet or 

 twisting of the tail. The gait is stiff and straddling. There is 

 fever, usually slight. If the muscular coat is involved there is 

 distension of the bladder, and if the neck participates the urine 

 escapes involuntarily. If due to unrelieved stone that will be 

 found on examination. 



The case is most hopeful if due to irritants or some clearly 

 removable cause. 



Treatment. — Remove the cause, whether food, drugs, blister- 

 ing agents on the skin, stone, gravel, or retained and decomposed 

 urine. Give spare, soft, aqueous diet, with mucilaginous agents 

 (linseed decoction or tea, slippery elm, gums, etc.), laxatives of 

 olive or linseed-oil, soft pure water at will, and mucilaginous 

 and anodyne injections into the bladder (gum Arabic i drachm, 

 opmm I drachm, tepid water i pint). Blisters may be used in 

 paralysis. In severe cases these may be preceded by fomen- 

 tations, Finally, when the acute symptoms have subsided, 



o 



