97 
DISEASE OF THE GENERATIVE AND URINARY 
ORGANS IN A STIRK. 
By J. W. Hill, M.R.C.V.S., Wolverhampton. 
I have sent per train this afternoon the uterus and kidneys 
of a stirk, which I made a post-mortem examination of this 
morning, December 19th; the disease appears to he of a 
cancerous nature. My attention was first directed to the case 
on Sunday morning, December 17th, during a visit to 
see a sick horse. I was then asked to look at the stirk, which 
was said to be endeavouring to cast her calf. When I saw 
her she was lying down and grunting, pulse low, extremities 
cold ; there was also excessive tympany present. With 
difficulty we got the animal up. I learnt that the stirk had 
not passed any feculent matter since the previous day (with 
the exception of a small quantity, very dry and hard) ; which 
fact, added to the signs of an accumulation of gas in the 
rumen, in association with frequent grunting, inclined me to 
think that there was impactment of the third stomach. As 
there were no symptoms of straining nor any appearance 
about the generative organs externally to lead one to the 
supposition that abortion was taking place, I administered an 
aperient in the shape of a physic ball dissolved in warm 
water and mixed with three pounds of treacle,j not being 
prepared for such a case, and having no better medicine with 
me. A dose of 01. Lini had been given before I saw the 
animal. Instructions were left for a messenger to come up 
to me in the evening at five o’clock if no movement of the 
bowels had taken place; but at that hour the bowels acted ; 
the animal was, however, by no means relaxed. A saline 
purgative was administered the following morning. Upon 
attending again on Tuesday, I found the animal dead, death 
having taken place early that morning. A post-mortem ex¬ 
amination revealed the following lesions : abdominal cavity 
full of blood-coloured fluid, the uterus, together with the 
kidneys and adjacent parts, were one mass of disease, having, 
in fact, gone on to gangrene, the kidneys excepted. These 
were in a highly inflammatory condition and surrounded with 
watery fluid ; the whole mass was insufferable, and emitted a 
most offensive stench, but no foetus was present. There was 
a large abscess in connection with the uterus from which a 
quantity of foetid pus escaped, and the walls of that organ, as 
you will perceive, were considerably thickened and diseased. 
