CYSTITIS 91 



The urine is turbid and darker in color than nor- 

 mal and is usually alkaline in reaction (normal 

 urine in the dog is acid), although where the colon 

 bacillus is the causative agent the urine is acid. 

 On microscopical examination the urine is found 

 to contain mucus, pus cells, bladder cells, bacteria, 

 and often blood corpuscles. The salts in the urine 

 are also greatly increased during attacks of cystitis, 

 the triple phosphates predominating. 



Examination of the bladder per rectum is painful, 

 and in many cases, especially when the disease has 

 become chronic, the walls of that viscus are found 

 to be greatly thickened. If the exciting cause be a 

 calculus, palpation of the bladder through the rec- 

 tum will reveal its presence. The temperature as 

 a rule does not run high, the fever being of a remit- 

 tent type. 



The appetite is suspended and the patient suffers 

 from general malaise. The chief complications to 

 be dreaded in cystitis are an extension of the in- 

 fection up the ureters, with consequent involvement 

 of the kidneys (nephritis or pyelonephritis) and rup- 

 ture of the bladder from necrosis of its walls. 



In chronic forms of cystitis the symptoms are 

 not so evident, the most prominent being incon- 

 tinence of urine, and the microscope must be relied 

 upon to complete the diagnosis. The walls of the 

 bladder in these cases, as stated above, are found 

 upon examination per rectum to be greatly thickened. 



Treatment. — The treatment of cystitis must be 

 dietetic, medicinal, and local. In every case the 

 diet -must be of a non-irritating character, milk be- 

 ing the ideal food. Barley water ad lihUuni. should 

 also take the place of ordinary water, 'and should 

 be kept constantly before the patient. Among the 

 medicinal agents used for this condition are formin, 

 lithium benzoate, ammonium benzoate, hyoscyamin, 



