DISEASES OF THE URINARY ORGANS. 151 



a powerful determining cause. The condition is marked in many 

 mares during the period of heat. 



An oleaginous laxative (castor oil 1 pint) will serve to remove any 

 cause of irritation in the digestive organs, and a careful dieting will 

 avoid continued irritation by acrid vegetable agents. The bladder 

 should be examined to see that there is no stone or other cause of irri- 

 tation, and the sheath and penis should be washed with soapsuds, any 

 sebaceous matter removed from the bilocular cavity at the end of the 

 penis, and the whole lubricated with sweet oil. Irritable mares 

 should be induced to urinate before they are harnessed, and those 

 that clutch the lines under the tail may have the tail set high by 

 cutting the cords on its lower surface, or it may be prevented from 

 getting over the reins by having a strap carried from its free end to 

 the breeching. Those proving troublesome when " in heat " may have 

 4-dram doses of bromid of potassium, or they may be served by the 

 male or castrated. Sometimes irritability may be lessened by daily 

 doses of belladonna extract (1 dram), or a better tone may be given 

 to the parts by balsam copaiba (1 dram) . 



DISEASED GROWTHS IN THE BLADDER. 



These may be of various kinds, malignant or simple. In the horse 

 I have found villous growths from the mucous membrane especially 

 troublesome. They may be attached to the mucous membrance by a 

 narrow neck or by a broad base covering a great part of the organ. 



Symptoms. — The symptoms are frequent straining, passing of urine 

 and blood with occasionally gravel. An examination of the bladder 

 with the hand in the rectum will detect the new growth, which may 

 be distinguished from a hard, resistant stone. In mares, in which the 

 finger can be inserted into the bladder, the recognition is still more 

 satisfactory. The polypi attached by narrow necks may be removed 

 by surgical operation, but for those with broad attachments treatment 

 is eminently unsatisfactory. 



DISCHARGE OF URINE BY THE NAVEL, OR PERSISTENT URACHUS. 



This occurs only in the newborn, and consists in the nonclosure of 

 the natural channel (urachus) , through which the urine is discharged 

 into the outer water bag (allantois) in fetal life. At that early stage 

 of the animal existence the bladder resembles a long tube, which is 

 prolonged through the navel string and opens into the outermost of 

 the two water bags in which the fetus floats. In this way the urine 

 is prevented from entering the inner water bag (amnion), where it 

 would mingle with the liquids, bathing the skin of the fetus and 

 cause irritation. At birth this channel closes up, and the urine takes 



