PERI-NEPHRITIS. 



Definition. In cattle on low damp lands, acrid plants, sprain, blow, cal- 

 culus, from purulent nephritis, in anaemia. Symptoms : of nephritis, soil- 

 ing of tail or prepuce, albumen, pus or blood in urine, lameness, unilateral 

 or bilateral, lumbar swelling, in small animals fluctuation, history. Lesions : 

 abscesses around kidney, under capsule, intercommunicating. Treatment : 

 as in purulent nephritis. 



Suppuration in the connective tissue between the kidney and 

 its capsule is seen in cattle in low condition, on damp, un- 

 improved soils like undrained river bottoms and estuaries, 

 abounding in acrid and diuretic plants. Even among such ani- 

 mals it is rare and has probably a directly exciting cause in a 

 sprain or blow on the loins, or the presence and movement of a 

 renal calculus. It may extend from suppurations in the sub- 

 stance of the kidney and to such extension the weak or anaemic 

 condition materially contributes. In man, in which such condi- 

 tions have been more frequently observed, a weak or cachetic 

 condition is considered as an essential accessory factor along with 

 the traumatic lesion (R. Harrison). Similar conditions may be 

 expected to bring about peri-nephritis in any one of our domestic 

 animals. The author has observed it especially on the low lands 

 on the banks of the Ouse in Yorkshire, England. 



Symptoms. These are mainly those of nephritis in general, 

 shivering, stiff movement in the hind limbs, straddling, frequent 

 passage of urine, straining, difficulty in lying down and rising, 

 tenderness of the loins, dropping when mounted, groaning when 

 turned in a short circle. If the suppuration communicates with 

 the pelvis of the kidney there may be, in females, soiling of the 

 tail, and in males of the prepuce. Blood may be passed with the 

 urine, and pus cells and albumen are found when it is examined. 

 If one kidney only is affected, there is lameness in the corre- 

 sponding hind limb, the special feature being inability to extend 

 it backward. A swelling on the one side of the loins, and be- 

 neath the lumbar transverse processes just posterior to the last 

 rib, is likely to be a marked symptom, and if this persists and is 

 especially prominent at one point, an exploratory incision or 

 232 



