136 DISEASES OF CATTLE. 



STONE IN THE KIDNEY (RENAL CALCULI). 

 [PI. XI, fig. 1.] 



In an animal leading the quiet, uneventful life of the ox, stones of 

 large size may be present in the kidney without producing any dis- 

 order appreciable to the people about him. In cattle fattened on dry 

 food in winter, on our magnesian limestone of New York, it is excep- 

 tional to find the substance of the kidney free from calculi about the 

 size of a grain of wheat or less, and standing out as white objects in 

 the general red of the cut surface of the organ. Similarly around the 

 papillae in the cup-like arms of the pelvis we find minute flattened or 

 more or less rounded yellowish white concretions. Even the large 

 concretions may prove apparently harmless. I have a calculus sev- 

 eral ounces in weight which filled the entire pelvis of the kidney, which 

 was found by accident in a fat carcass while being dressed. In work 

 oxen, however, such concretions may give rise to symptoms of kidney 

 disease, such as stiffness of the loins, shown especially in the acts 

 of rising or turning, weakness of the hind parts when set to pull a 

 heavy load, an irritability of the kidneys, shown by the frequent pas- 

 sage of urine in small quantity, tenderness of the loins, shown when 

 they are pinched or lightly struck, and it may be the passage of blood 

 or minute gritty masses with the urine. If the attack is severe, what 

 is called ' ' renal colic " (kidney colic) may be shown by frequent uneasy 

 shifting of the hind limbs, shaking or twisting of the tail, looking 

 round at the flanks, and lying down and rising again at short inter- 

 vals without apparent cause. The frequent passage of urine, the 

 blood or gritty masses contained in it, and perhaps the hard, stony 

 cylinders around the tufts of hair of the sheath, show that the source 

 of the suffering is the urinary organs. In bad cases active inflamma- 

 tion of the kidneys may set in. (See "Nephritis," p. 121.) 



URETERAL CALCULI. 



These are small stones which have passed from the pelvis of the • 

 kidney into the canal (ureter) leading from the kidney to the bladder, ' 

 but, being too large to pass on easily, have blocked that canal and 

 forced the urine back upon the kidney. The result is the production 

 of symptoms more violent than in renal calculi, though not varying, 

 save in intensity, from those of renal colic. In case of complete and 

 unrelieved obstruction, the secretion of the kidney on that side is 

 entirely abolished, and it becomes the seat of passive congestion, and 

 it may even be absorbed in greater part or as a whole, leaving only a 

 fibrous sac containing fluid with a urinous odor. In small cattle, in 

 which the oiled hand introduced into the last gut may reach the 

 affected part, the distended ureter may be felt as a tense, elastic- cord, 

 extending forward from the point of obstruction on the lateral wall of 

 the pelvis and beneath the loius toward the kidney. If relief is 



