,s General Symptoms of Urinary . Disease. . 205 



and dog ; this is more difficult in the sheep and goat and still 

 more so in the bull and boar. In tjie small animal protrusion is 

 favored by setting him on his rump, with his back between the 

 operator's legs, and pelvis doubled forward toward the 

 sternum. The penis of the bull may be extended in presence of 

 a cow in heat, and promptly seized, or it may be seized through 

 the sheath back of its first bulging part and skillfully worked out. 

 In the ruminant, calculi may be felt at the" sigmoid curve, and in 

 the ram, in the vermiform appendix at the free end of the penis. 



Internal Exploration. This is accomplished in the larger 

 animals with the oiled hand in the rectum, the nails having been 

 pared short and even to avoid injury to the mucosa: In ponies 

 and yearlings the kidney may be felt, and this may be true also 

 of mature animals of larger species in cases of hypertrophy or 

 floating kidney. The ureters, bladder and intrapelvic urethra 

 are easily felt in the male. The empty bladder lies on the an- 

 terior border of the pelvis ; when full, it projects. forward into the 

 abdomen but retains its pyriform or, in the very young animal, 

 its fusiform shape. In the female the sensation is somewhat 

 modified by the presence on its upper surface of the uterus divid- 

 ing into its two horns anteriorly. The single enlarged horn of 

 pregnancy is especially misleading. 



The female urethra, cervix and bladder may be explored 

 through the vagina. To explore the cervix vesicae and urethra 

 the fingers are slowly drawn back from the bladder along the 

 median line of the floor of the vagina. In the • mare the cervix 

 and adjacent portion of the bladder can be further explored with 

 the index finger introduced through the opening of the urethra 

 in the floor of the pelvis and at the junction of the vagina and 

 vulva. In the cow the urethra is too small to be readily explored 

 from within, and the orifice is still further guarded by the two 

 lateral blind canals of Gaertner, into which the unskilled fingers 

 more readily pass. Success only attends the careful search for 

 the small central lower orifice. In the smaller animals the ^ngei 

 only can be introduced into vagina or rectum and the urethra, 

 cervix and bladder only can be felt. The result of such explora- 

 tion is straining even in healthy conditions but which becomes 

 excessive in nephritis, pyelitis, renal, uretral, vesical or urethral 

 calculus, cystitis, rectitis or enteritis. 



