CANINE AND FELINE SURGERY 



and 295). Knowing the tendency of dogs towards obesity, 



one might have expected that Hpomata, such as have 



been recorded in the 

 horse, would have been 

 found, but even these are 

 only noteworth}' by their 

 absence. 



In the cat the extreme 

 mobility of the kidneys 

 must not be forgotten, and 

 these organs (especially if 

 enlarged, as in Fig. 13;) 

 have on more than one 

 occasion been diagnosed as 

 tumours, and laparotomy 

 has been performed with 

 the object of removing 

 them. Their situation and 

 shape, together with a few 

 days' observation of the 

 patient, are the chief aids 

 to diagnosis, but that the 



shape may become distorted and misleading is well illustrated 



in the photograph. 



Fig. 137. — Post-mortem Specimen of a 

 Cat showing Enormously Enlarged 

 Kidneys.' 



Appendicitis and Typhlitis. 



Appendicitis, to which so much attention has recently 

 been drawn in human surgery, is an impossible disease in 

 the dog or cat, on account of the absence of the appendix 

 from these animals, and colotomy, the operation by which 

 an artificial communication is made between the lower 

 bowel and the outside of the body, needs but a passing remark 

 here, as (except experimentally) it would not be performed 



' For this photograph I am indebted to Air. H. G. Simpson, F.R.C.V.S. 



