136 KENNEL DISEASES. 
color the skin and “whites” of the eyes. And this stain may pe trom a faint 
yellow to a bronzed or greenish brown. 
In most instances the urine is very high colored, and certain secretions are 
similarly affected in severe cases. Discharges from the bowels may also be 
distinctly changed in appearance, and notably when the bile is prevented from 
leaving the gall-bladder; they being then pale, clay-colored or slate-colored, 
and dry, hard, and lumpy. At the same time the bowels are sluggish, and there 
is constipation, owing to the absence of bile. 
Speaking generally, there are two conditions which may give rise to this 
affection. In one, the liver does not remove the coloring-matter from the blood, 
and the same finds its way out largely through the small blood-vessels at the 
surface of the body. In the other, the liver does this properly, but being pre- 
vented from passing into the intestine, the bile is reabsorbed. 
Of these conditions the latter is by far the most common; and the obstruc- 
tion in the gall-duct —the passage from the gall-bladder to the intestines — is, 
as a rule, due to inflammation of its lining membrane, which, swelling, closes 
the canal. The inflammation here only rarely has its origin in the gall-duct 
itself, but in most instances it is an extension of a similar trouble from that 
part of the intestine into which this duct opens. 
As for the intestinal inflammation, its causes have already been discussed 
under Gastritis and Enteritis. But it may be merely circumscribed, that is, 
confined to only a small part of the intestine near the duct in question; in 
which instance it is often caused by a foreign body, as a small stone, or it may 
be associated with obstruction of the bowel. 
In all diseases of the liver jaundice is likely to occur, yet it is a significant 
fact that generally they must be quite serious and have persisted for a consider- 
able time before this symptom is prominent. It would also seem from results 
of observations that, contrary to the general belief that the liver or some of its 
attachments are invariably at fault where there is jaundice, this trouble may 
exist and yet, as far as can be determined, the liver be in a perfectly healthy 
state; showing that the cause may be beyond it and in some other part of the 
system. 
Jaundice is a frequent complication of distemper. It has also been vari- 
ously attributed to chilling, errors in feeding, and especially to decomposed 
meats, excessive fatigue, obstinate constipation, filthy surroundings, intense 
excitement, — as experienced in fighting, — kicks, blows, etc., all of which 
influences would seem capable of exciting it under certain conditions. Again, 
it may be caused by the pressure of tumors. 
Occurring as it has in epidemics, several inmates of kennels being attacked 
at the same time, some hold to the theory that, in occasional instances at least, 
it is of infectious nature. This, however, has not been proved; and, indeed, 
the weight of evidence is much against it. 
