DISEASES OF THE URINARY ORGANS. 147 
Causes——The causes are usually hard and continuous driving 
without opportunity for passing urine, cold rainstorms, drafts of 
cold airwhen perspiring and fatigued, the administration of 
Spanish fly or the application of extensive blisters of the same, 
abuse of diuretics, the presence of acrid, diuretic plants in the 
fodder, and the presence of stone in the bladder. As most mares 
refuse to urinate while in harness, they should be unhitched at 
suitable times for urination. Spasms of the bowels are always 
attended by spasm of the bladder, hence the free passage of water. 
is usually a symptom of relief. 
Symptoms.—The symptoms are frequent stretching and strain- 
ing to urinate, with no result or a slight dribbling only. These 
vain efforts are attended by pain and groaning. On resuming his 
natural position the animal is not freed from the pain, but moves 
uneasily, paws, shakes the tail, kicks at the abdomen with his hind 
feet, looks back to the flank, lies down and rises, arches the back, 
and attempts to urinate as before. If the oiled hand is introduced 
into the rectum the greatly distended bladder may be felt beneath, 
and the patient will often shrink when it is handled. 
It is important to notice that irritation of the urinary organs is 
often present in impaction of the colon with solid matters, because 
‘the impacted intestine under the straining of the patient is forced 
backward into the pelvis and presses upon and irritates the bladder. 
In such cases the horse stands with his fore limbs advanced and 
the hind ones stretched back beyond the natural posture and makes 
frequent efforts to urinate, with varying success. Unpracticed ob- 
servers naturally conclude that the secondary urinary trouble is 
the main and only one, and the intestinal impaction and obstruction 
is too often neglected until it is irremediable. In cases in which 
the irritation has caused spasm of the neck of the bladder and 
overdistention of that organ, the mistake is still more easily made; 
hence it is important in all cases to examine for the impacted bowel, 
forming a bend or loop at the entrance of the pelvis and usually 
toward the left side. The impacted intestine feels soft and doughy 
and is easily indented with the knuckles, forming a marked contrast 
with the tense, elastic, resilient, overdistended bladder. 
It remains to be noted that similar symptoms may be determined 
by a stone or sebaceous mass, or stricture obstructing the urethra, or 
in the newborn by thickened mucus in that duct and by the pres- 
sure of hardened, impacted feces in the rectum. In obstruction, 
the hard, impacted body can usually be felt by tracing the urethra 
along the lower and posterior surface of the penis and forward to 
the median line of the floor of the pelvis to the neck of the bladder. 
That part of the urethra between the seat of obstruction and the 
