148 DISEASES OF THE HORSE. 
bladder is usually distended with urine and feels enlarged, elastic, 
and fluctuating. 
Treatment.—Treatment may be begun by taking the animal out of 
harness. This failing, spread clean litter beneath the belly or turn 
the patient out on the dung heap. Some seek to establish sympa- 
thetic action by pouring water from one vessel into another with 
dribbling noise. Others soothe and distract the attention by slow 
whistling. Friction of the abdomen with wisps of straw may suc- 
ceed, or it may be rubbed with ammonia and oil. These failing, an 
injection of 2 ounces of laudanum or of an infusion of 1 ounce of 
tobacco in water may be tried. In the mare the neck of the bladder 
is easily dilated by inserting two oiled fingers and slightly parting 
them. In the horse the oiled hand introduced into the rectum may 
press from before backward on the anterior or blind end of the blad- 
der. Finally, a well-oiled gum-elastic catheter may be entered into 
the urethra through the papilla at the end of the penis and pushed 
on carefully until it has entered the bladder. To effect this the penis 
must first be withdrawn from its sheath, and when the advancing 
end of the catheter has reached the bend of the urethra beneath the 
anus it must be guided forward by pressure with the hand, which 
guidance must be continued onward into the bladder, the oiled hand 
being introduced into the rectum for this purpose. The horse cathe- 
ter, 34 feet long and one-third inch in diameter, may be bought of a 
surgical-instrument maker. 
PARALYSIS OF THE BLADDER. 
Paralysis of the body of the bladder with spasm of the neck has 
been described under the last heading, and may occur in the same 
way from overdistention in tetanus, acute rheumatism, paraplegia, 
and hemiplegia, in which the animal can not stretch himself to urinate, 
and in cystitis, affecting the body of the bladder but not the neck. 
In all these cases the urine is suppressed. It also occurs as a result 
of disease of the posterior end of the spinal marrow and with broken 
back, and is then associated with palsy of the tail, and, it may be, of 
thé hind limbs. ; 
Symptoms.—tThe symptoms are a constant dribbling of urine when 
the neck is involved, the liquid running down the inside of the thighs 
and irritating the skin. When the neck is unaffected the urine is 
retained until the bladder is greatly overdistended, when it may be 
expelled in a gush by the active contraction of the muscular walls of 
the abdomen; this never empties the bladder, however, and the oiled 
hand introduced through the rectum may feel the soft, flabby organ 
still half full of urine. This retained urine is liable to decompose 
and give off ammonia, which dissolves the epithelial cells, exposing 
the raw, mucous membrane and causing the worst type of cystitis. 
