DISEASES OF THE GENERATIVE ORGANS. 



By James Law, F. R. C. V. S., 



Professor of Veterinary Science, etc., in Cornell University. 



[Revised in 1903 by tlie author.] 



CONGESTION AND INFLAMMATION OF THE TESTICIES^ OR ORCHITIS. 



In the prime of life, in vigorous health, and on stimulating food, 

 stallions are subject to congestion of the testicles, which become 

 swollen, hot, and tender, but without any active inflammation. A 

 reduction of the grain in the feed, the administration of 1 or 2 ounces 

 of Glauber's salts daily in the food, and the bathing of the affected 

 organs daily with tepid water or alum water will usually restore them 

 to a healthy condition. 



When the factors producing congestion are extraordinarily potent, 

 when there has been frequent copulation and heavy grain feeding, 

 when the weather is warm and the animal has had little exercise, and 

 when the proximity of other horses or mares excites the generative 

 instinct without gratification, this congestion may grow to actual 

 inflammation. Among the other causes of orchitis are blows and pen- 

 etrating wounds implicating the testicles, abrasions of the scrotum by 

 a chain or rope passing inside the thigh, contusions and frictions on 

 the gland under rapid paces or heavy draft, compression of the blood 

 vessels of the spermatic cord by the inguinal ring under the same cir- 

 cumstances, and, finally, sympathetic disturbance in cases of disease 

 of the kidneys, bladder, or urethra. Stimulants of the generative 

 functions, like rue, savin, tansy, cantharides, and damiana, may also 

 be accessory causes of congestion and inflammation. Finally, certain 

 specific diseases like maladie du coit, glanders, and tuberculosis, local- 

 ized in the testicles, will cause inflammation. 



Symftoms. — Apart from actual wounds of the parts, the symptoms 

 of orchitis are swelling, heat, and tenderness of the testicles, strad- 

 dling with the hind legs alike in standing and walking, stiffness and 

 dragging of the hind limbs or of the limb on the affected side, arching 

 of the loins, abdominal pain, manifested by glancing back at the flank, 

 with more or less fever, elevated body temperature, accelerated pulse 

 and breathing, inappetence, and dullness. In bad cases the scanty 

 urine may be reddish and the swelling may extend to the skin and 

 envelopes of the testicle, which may become thickened and doughy, 

 pitting on pressure. The swelling may be so much greater in the 

 convoluted excretory duct along the upper border of the testicle as to 



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