DISEASES OF THE UEINARY ORGANS. 125 



The symptoms of nephritis are in certain cases very manifest, and 

 in others so hidden that the existence of the affection can only be cer- 

 tainly recognized by a microscopic examination of the urine. In vio- 

 lent cases there is high fever, increase of the body temperature to 

 103° F. and upward; hurried breathing, with catching inspiration; 

 accelerated pulse ; dry. hot muzzle ; burning of the roots of the horns 

 and ears, loss of appetite, suspended rumination, and indications of 

 extreme sensitiveness in the loins. The patient stands with back 

 arched and hind legs extended backward and outward, and passes 

 water frequently, in driblets, of a high color and specific gravity, con- 

 taining albumin and microscopic casts. (PI. XI, fig. 5.) AMien 

 made to move, the patient does so with hesitation and groaning, espe- 

 cially if turned in a narrow circle: and when pinched on the flank, 

 just beneath the lateral bony processes of the loins, especially on that 

 side on which the disease predominates, it flinches and groans. If the 

 examination is made with oiled hand introduced through the last 

 gut (rectum), the pressure upward on the kidneys gives rise to great 

 pain and efforts to escape by moving away and by active contractions 

 of the rectum for the expulsion of the hand. Sometimes there is a 

 distinct swelling over the loins or quarter on one or both sides. In 

 uncastrated males the testicle on the affected side is drawn up, or is 

 alternately raised and dropped. In all there is a liability to tremors 

 of the thigh on the side affected. 



In some severe cases colicky pains are as violent as in the worst 

 forms of indigestion and spasms of the bowels. The animal fre- 

 quently shifts from one hind foot to the other, stamps, kicks at the 

 belly, looks anxiously at its flank at frequent intervals, moans plain- 

 tively, lies down and quickly gets up again, gi*inds its teeth, twists 

 its tail, and keeps the back habitually arched and rigid and the hind 

 feet advanced under the belly. The bowels may be costive and the 

 feces glistening with a coat of mucus, or they may be loose and irri- 

 table, and the paunch or even the bowels may become distended with 

 gas (bloating) as the result of indigestion and fermentation. In 

 some animals, male and female alike, the rigid arched condition of 

 the back will give way to such undulating movements as are some- 

 times seen in the act of coition. 



The disease does not always appear in its full severity; but for a 

 day, or even two, there may be merely loss of appetite, impaired rumi- 

 nation, a disposition to remain lying down; yet when the patient is 

 raised, it manifests suffering by anxiously looking at the flank-, 

 shifting or stamping of the hind feet, shaking of the tail, and at- 

 tempts to urinate. Avhich are either fruitless or lead to the discharge 

 of a small quantity of high-colored or perhaps bloody urine. 



In some recent slight cases, and in many chronic ones, these symp- 

 toms may be absent or unobserved, and an examination of the urine 



