SYMPTOMS 129 
_ Symptoms in the later stages would-be those of sub- 
normal temperature, weak thin pulse, probably diarrhcea, 
and in fatal cases suppression of urine, convulsions, 
coma, and death. If resolution is taking place, the 
amount of urine passed will gradually increase to normal, 
and it will be clearer and contain fewer foreign bodies. 
If the nephritis is of a diffuse chronic type, the kidney 
becomes small, cystic, nodulated, and adherent to its 
capsule. The interstitial tissue is increased, and vessel 
walls and Malpighian corpuscles thickened. The amount 
of urine voided will be increased; it will be pale in 
colour, and will contain albumin and casts, though a 
smaller amount of the former than in acute nephritis. 
The pulse will be hard and full at first, perhaps becoming 
weak and accelerated as the disease progresses, and 
when the latter occurs the urine passed will be again 
diminished and darker in colour, and death may eventu- 
ally result from uraemia, or the pressure on vital organs 
produced by generalised dropsy (avasarca). Nephritis, 
although grave, is not necessarily fatal in dogs, though 
its early diagnosis is essential in order that certain 
medicinal agents and foods which would prove harmful 
may be avoided. 
It is common enough, in post-mortems made upon aged 
dogs which have died from natural causes, to find exten- 
sive kidney disease which during life was never suspected, 
and which never appeared to have disturbed the dog’s 
health in any way. . 
Cystit’s.—Distension and inflammation of the bladder 
are quite common in distemper, especially when nervous 
complications are also present. Retention of urine is, 
in such cases, probably occasioned by weakness of the 
muscular coats of the bladder due to chronic catarrh 
or paralysis. Cystitis may be caused by extension of 
inflammatory processes from the kidneys or ureters, or 
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