84 CANINE MEDICINE AND SURGERY 



Treatment. — The treatment of acute nephritis 

 must begin with the prohibition of all foods and 

 drugs having an irritant eflfect upon the kidneys, 

 and the diet must consist exclusively of milk. The 

 bowels must be kept freely active wi'th cathartics — ■ 

 one to two grains of calomel — and the kidneys 

 solicited by non-stimulating diurectic such as five 

 to twenty grains of potassium acetate. If edema is 

 present the potassium acetate may be replaced ad- 

 vantageously by digitalis. 



To relieve the congestion warm, moist compresses 

 may be applied to the loins and hypodermic injec- 

 tions of morphin sulphate given. In urgent cases 

 the patient should at once be placed in a hot bath, 

 rubbed dry, and kept warm with flannel coverings. 

 Later on from five to twenty minims of tincture of 

 iron perchlorid with a bitter tonic, such as one 

 half to one ounce tincture of cinchona, may be 

 given with advantage. 



Chronic Nephritis 



Chronic inflammation of the kidneys may develop 

 from the acute form or it may assume an insidious 

 chronic form from the beginning. 



Cause. — Irritants to the kidney substance such 

 as chemical irritants, bacteria, emboli, and the ex- 

 tension of infection from the pelvis in cases of 

 pyelitis, may cause chronic nephritis where the irri- 

 tation is not severe enough to produce acute ne- 

 phritis. 



Symptoms. — These symptoms come on so grad- 

 ually that the disease may be far advanced before 

 it is noticed. The patient exhibits an unexplained 

 lassitude and loss of appetite, and later dropsical 

 swellings appear on the dependent parts and direct 

 one's attention to the urine, which alone can give 

 diagnostic data. 



