GALX STONES IN DOG AND CAT. 



These are more or less spherical, dark brownish green, and 

 usually found in the gall bladder or larger bile ducts. They may 

 vary in size from a pea to a hazel nut. Their chemical analysis 

 is wanting. 



Symptoms. There may be evidence of biliary obstruction and 

 if this occurs intermittently and is associated with colic, it becomes 

 somewhat characteristic. Constipation, etnesis, icterus, and some- 

 time's tenderness of the right hypochondrium would indicate the 

 source of the colic. A pre-existing and concurrent catarrh of 

 the bowels corroborates these indications. 



Cadeac explains that the obstructing calculus is called on to 

 resist the impulse of the bile forced upon it by the spasmodic 

 contraction of the bile ducts, which distends the bile duct imme- 

 diately back of the stone to perhaps ten times its normal size. 

 Then under a suspension of the spasm or even an antiperistaltic 

 contraction of the duct, the calculus is forced back into the dilated 

 portion or even into the gall-bladder, and the attack is relieved. 

 Under repeated irritations of this kind the inflammation of the 

 bile ducts extends into the liver and determines cirrhosis. The 

 irritation further through the sympathetic produces a reflex con- 

 striction of the pulmonary capillaries, with the natural results of 

 increasing tension of the pulmonary artery and right heart, and 

 dilatation and degeneration of the walls of the latter even in the 

 best nourished animals. Thus dyspnoea and modified heart 

 sounds (murmurs) may be symptoms of biliary calculi. 



Treatment. Three or four ounces of olive oil were found to 

 greatly increase the quantity and fluidity of the bile in from 

 thirty to forty- five minutes. Bile, sulphate of soda and salicylate 

 of soda are excellent cholagogues, and the latter at the same time 

 an antiseptic. Anti-spasmodics are especially indicated to relieve 

 the colics, but they must be used in relatively smaller doses than in 

 the herbivora. Potassic and sodic carbonates or tartrates (Vichy) 

 may be used as enemas if they cannot be administered by the 

 mouth. Fomentations may be resorted to. The food must be 

 laxative and aqueous, and exercise must be imposed as far as the 

 animal can bear it. 



35 545 



