SPECIAL REPORT ON DISEASES OF CATTLE TEXT

parted, and the back is arched as if to urinate, but the effort is vain. If the oiled hand is introduced into the rectum or vagina in the early stages of the affection, the bladder may be felt beneath partially filled, but not overdistended with liquid, and its neck or mouth firm and rigid. In the more advanced stages of the affection the organ is felt as a great, tense, elastic bag, extending forward into the abdomen. In this condition the overdistended muscular coat of the bladder has lost its power of contraction, so that true paralysis has set in, the muscle closing the mouth of the sac alone retaining its contractile power. In _paralysis of the body of the bladder_ attention is rarely drawn to the urinary disorder until the bladder has been distended to full repletion and is almost ready to give way by rupture and to allow the escape of the contained liquid into the abdomen. Overdistention is the most common cause of the paralysis, yet it may occur from inflammation of the muscular wall of the bladder, or even from injury to the terminal part of the spinal marrow. In this last condition, however, the tail is liable to be powerless, and the neck of the bladder may also be paralyzed, so that the urine dribbles away continuously. _Causes._--Among the causes of spasm of the neck of the bladder may be named the lodgment of small stones or gravel, the feeding on irritant diuretics (see "Bloody urine," p. 119, or "Nephritis," p. 123), the enforced retention of urine while at work or during a painful or difficult parturition. The irritation attendant on inflammation of the mucous membrane of the bladder may be a further cause of spasms of the neck, as may also be inflammation of the channel (urethra) back of the neck. Extensive applications of Spanish flies to the skin, the abuse of diuretics, and the occurrence of indigestion and spasms of the bowels are further causes. So long as spasmodic colic is unrelieved, retention of water from spasm of the neck of the bladder usually persists. _Treatment._--Treatment depends largely on the cause. In indigestion the irritant contents of the bowels must be got rid of by laxatives and injections of warm water; Spanish-fly blisters must be washed from the surface; a prolonged and too active exertion must be intermitted. The spasm may be relaxed by injecting one-half ounce of solid extract of belladonna in water into the rectum or by a solution of tobacco. Chloroform or ether may be given by inhalation, or chloral hydrate (1 ounce) may be given in water by the mouth. Fomentations of warm water may be made over the loins and between the thighs, and the oiled hand inserted into the rectum may press moderately on the anterior part of the bladder, which can be felt as an elastic fluctuating bag of an oval shape just beneath. All other measures failing, the liquid must be drawn off through a tube (catheter). This is, however, exceedingly difficult, alike in male and female, and we can not expect an amateur to succeed in accomplishing it. In the cow the opening into the bladder is found in the median line of the floor of the generative entrance, about 4 inches in front of the external opening, but it is flanked on either side by a blind pouch, into which the catheter will pass, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, in the hands of any but the most skilled operator. In the bull or steer the penis, when retracted into its sheath, is bent upon itself like the letter S, just above the scrotum and testicles (see Pl. IX, fig. 2), and unless this bend is effaced by extending the organ forward out of its sheath it is quite impossible to pass a catheter beyond this point. When, however, by the presentation of a female, the animal can be tempted to protrude the penis, so that it can be seized and extended, or when it can be manipulated forward out of the sheath, it becomes possible to pass a catheter of small caliber (one-third inch or under) onward into the bladder. Youatt advised laying open the sheath so as to reach and extend the penis, and others have advocated opening the urethra in the space between the thighs or just beneath the anus, but such formidable operations are beyond the stock owner. The incision of the narrow urethra through the great thickness of muscular and erectile bleeding tissue just beneath the anus is especially an operation of extreme delicacy and difficulty. Drawing the liquid through the tube of an aspirator is another possible resort for the professional man. The delicate needle of the aspirator is inserted in such cases through the floor of the vagina and upper wall of the bladder in the female, or through the floor of the rectum (last gut) and roof of the bladder in the male, or finally through the lower and back part of the abdominal wall, just in front of the bones of the pelvis (pubic bones), thence through the lower and anterior part of the bladder near its blind anterior end. After relief has been obtained the administration of belladonna in 2-dram doses daily for several days will tend to prevent a recurrence of the retention. When the body of the bladder has become benumbed or paralyzed by overdistention, we may seek to restore its tone by doses of one-half a dram of powdered nux vomica repeated daily, and by mustard plaster applied over the loins, on the back part of the belly inferiorly, or between the thighs. Small doses (2 drams) of balsam of copaiba are sometimes useful in imparting tone to the partly paralyzed organ. INCONTINENCE OF URINE (PALSY OF THE NECK OF THE BLADDER). This may occur from disease or injury to the posterior part of the spinal cord or from broken back, and in these cases the tail, and perhaps the hind limbs, are liable to be paralyzed. In this case the urine dribbles away constantly, and the oiled hand in the vagina or rectum will feel the half-filled and flaccid bladder beneath and may easily empty it by pressure. _Treatment._--Treatment is only successful when the cause of the trouble can be remedied. After these (sprains of the back, etc.) have recovered, blisters (mustard) on the loins, the lower part of the abdomen, or between the thighs may be resorted to with success. Two drams of copaiba or of solid extract of belladonna or 2 grains Spanish flies daily may serve to restore the lost tone. These failing, the use of electric currents may still prove successful. URINARY CALCULI (STONE OR GRAVEL). Stone or gravel consists of hard bodies mainly made up of the solid earthy constituents of the urine which have crystallized out of that liquid at some part of the urinary passage, and have remained as small particles (gravel), or have concreted into large masses (stone, calculus). (See Pl. XI, figs. 1, 2, 3.) In cattle it is no uncommon thing to find them distending the practically microscopic tubes in the red substance of the kidney, having been deposited from the urine in the solid form almost as soon as that liquid has been separated from the blood. These stones appear as white objects on the red ground formed by cutting sections of the kidney, and are essentially products of the dry feed of winter, and are most common in working oxen, which are called upon to exhale more water from the lungs and skin than are the slop-fed and inactive cows. Little water being introduced into the body with the feed and considerable being expelled with the breath and perspiration in connection with the active life, the urine becomes small in amount, but having to carry out all waste material from the tissues and the tissue-forming feed it becomes so charged with solids that it is ready to deposit them on the slightest disturbance. If, therefore, a little of the water of such concentrated urine is reabsorbed at any point of the urinary passages the remainder is no longer able to hold the solids in solution, and they are at once precipitated in the solid form as gravel or commencing stone. In cattle, on the other hand, which are kept at pasture in summer, or which are fed liberally on roots, potatoes, pumpkins, apples, or ensilage in winter, this concentrated condition of the urine is not induced, and under such circumstances, therefore, the formation of stone is practically unknown. Nothing more need be said to show the controlling influence of dry feeding in producing gravel and of a watery ration in preventing it. Calculus in cattle is essentially a disease of winter and of such cattle as are denied succulent feed and are confined to dry fodder as their exclusive ration. While there are exceptions, they are so rare that they do not invalidate this general rule. It is true that stone in the kidney or bladder is often found in the summer or in animals feeding at the time on a more or less succulent ration, yet such masses usually date back to a former period when the animals were restricted to a dry ration. In this connection is should be noted that a great drain of water from the system by any other channel than the kidneys predisposes to the production of gravel or stone. In case of profuse diarrhea, for example, or of excessive secretion of milk, there is a corresponding diminution of the water of the blood, and as the whole quantity of the blood is thus decreased and as the urine secreted is largely influenced by the fullness of the blood vessels and the pressure exerted upon their walls from within, it follows that with this decrease of the mass of the blood and the lessening of its pressure outward there will be a corresponding decrease of urine. The waste of the tissues, however, goes on as before, and if the waste matter is passed out through the kidneys it must be in a more concentrated solution, and the more concentrated the urine the greater the danger that the solids will be deposited as small crystals or calculi. Again, the concentrated condition of the urine which predisposes to such deposits is favored by the quantity of lime salts that may be present in the water drunk by the animal. Water that contains 20 or 30 grains of carbonate or sulphate of lime to the gallon must contribute a large addition of solids to the blood and urine as compared with soft waters from which lime is absent. In this connection it is a remarkable fact that stone and gravel in the domesticated herbivora are notoriously prevalent on many limestone soils, as on the limestone formations of central and western New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan; on the calcareous formations of Norfolk, Suffolk, Derbyshire, Shropshire, and Gloucestershire, in England; in Landes in France, and around Munich in Bavaria. It does not follow that the abundance of lime in the water and fodder is the main cause of the calculi, as other poisons which are operative in the same districts in causing goiter in both man and animal probably contribute to the trouble, yet the excess of earthy salts in the drinking water can hardly fail to add to the saturation of both blood and urine, and thereby to favor the precipitation of the urinary solids from their state of solution. The known results of feeding cattle a generous or forcing ration in which phosphate of lime is present to excess adds additional force to the view just advanced. In the writer's experience, the Second Duke of Oneida, a magnificent product of his world-famed family, died as the result of a too liberal allowance of wheat bran, fed with the view of still further improving the bone and general form of the Duchess strain of Shorthorns. Lithotomy was performed and a number of stones removed from the bladder and urethra, but the patient succumbed to an inflammation of the bowels, induced by the violent purgatives given before the writer arrived, under the mistaken idea that the straining had been caused by intestinal impaction. In this case not only the Second Duke of Oneida, but the other males of the herd as well, had the tufts of hairs at the outlet of the sheath encased in hard, cylindroid sheaths of urinary salts, precipitated from the liquid as it ran over them. The tufts were in reality resolved into a series of hard, rollerlike bodies, more or less constricted at intervals, as if beaded. When it is stated that the ash of the whole grain of wheat is but 3 per cent, while the ash of wheat bran is 7.3 per cent, and that in the case of the former 46.38 per cent of the ash is phosphoric acid, and in that of the latter 50 per cent, it can easily be understood how a too liberal use of wheat bran should prove dangerous if fed dry. The following table shows the relative proportion of ash and phosphoric acid in wheat bran and in some common farm seeds: _Ash and phosphoric acid in bran and some common farm seeds._ --------------------+----------+-------------+--------------- Kind of grain. | Ash. | Phosphoric | Phosphoric | |acid in ash. | acid in the | | | entire feed. --------------------+----------+-------------+--------------- |_Per cent_| _Per cent_ | _Per cent_ Wheat bran | 7.3 | 50 | 3.65 Wheat, grain | 3 | 46.38 | 1.3914 Oats, grain | 2.50 | 26.5 | .6625 Barley, grain | 3.10 | 39.6 | 1.2276 Bean, grain | 3.10 | 31.9 | .9864 Peas, grain | 2.75 | 34.8 | .957 Tare, grain | 3 | 36.2 | 1.086 Indian corn, grain. | 1.5 | -- | -- Rye, grain | 1.6 | 39.9 | .6384 --------------------+----------+-------------+--------------- Wheat bran, it will be observed, contains three times as much phosphoric acid as is found in any of the other grains, and four times as much as oats, beans, peas, or rye; so that if fed in excess it will readily overcharge the urine with phosphates. There is another point to be considered, however, in estimating this danger. Wheat bran contains a far greater quantity of albuminoids and other nitrogen-containing constituents than the common grains (these being made up mainly of starch, which contains no nitrogen); and, all nitrogen-bearing products contained in the blood and tissues being expelled from the body mainly through the kidneys in the form of urea and (in cattle) hippuric acid, it follows that the excess of urea formed when such feed is consumed must load the urine with solids and bring it constantly nearer to the point of saturation, when such solids (or the least soluble of them) must be deposited. The following table will show the relative amounts of the nitrogen-bearing products in wheat bran and some of our common grains: _Nitrogenous matter in wheat bran and some common farm grains._ -----------------+---------------+----------------+---------------------- Kind of grain. | Albuminoids | Woody fiber | Total nitrogenous- | (nitrogenous).| (nitrogenous.) | bearing constituents. -----------------+---------------+----------------+---------------------- | _Per cent_ | _Per cent_ | _Per cent_ Wheat bran. | 16.1 | 8 | 24.1 Wheat, grain | 12.5 | 1.8 | 14.3 Barley, grain | 12.4 | 2.7 | 15.1 Oats, grain | 11.8 | 9.5 | 21.3 Rye, grain | 10.6 | 1.7 | 12.3 Indian corn | 10.1 | 1.7 | 11.8 -----------------+---------------+----------------+---------------------- It will be observed that, with the exception of oats, none of the grains contain more than two-thirds of the nitrogenous material present in the wheat bran, while in the case of rye and maize there is practically but one-half. Even in the case of oats the albuminoids, which are the more digestible principles, and therefore those that are the most easily and speedily converted into urea, are present only to the amount of two-thirds of that which exists in the wheat bran. With such an excess of ash, of phosphates, and of nitrogenous (urea-forming) constituents in wheat bran, its tendency to favor the formation of calculi is fully explained. It must not, however, be inferred that wheat bran is not a valuable feedstuff. The inference is only that it should be fed with an abundance of water, as a sloppy mash, or in combination with an abundance of roots, potatoes, pumpkins, or other succulent aliment. In this connection the presence of magnesia in the feed or water must be named as favoring calculous formations in the urinary passages. The explanation is that while the phosphate of magnesia thrown out in the urine is soluble in water, the compound phosphate of ammonia and magnesia is insoluble, and, accordingly, if at any time ammonia is introduced into urine containing the phosphate of magnesia there is instantly formed the ammonio-magnesium phosphate, which is as promptly deposited in the solid form. The common source of ammonia in such cases is from decomposition of the urea in fermenting urine. In order to produce this a ferment is necessary, however, and therefore, as an additional prerequisite, the presence of bacteria, or fungi, in the urine is essential. These ferments may make their way from without along the urinary passage (urethra), and their propagation in the bladder is greatly favored by the prolonged retention of urine, as in case of spasm of the neck of the bladder or obstruction by an already existing stone. Another mode of entrance of the ferment is an unclean catheter used to draw the urine. Still another is the elimination through the kidneys of the bacteria of infectious diseases, or of such as, without producing a general infection, yet determine fermentation in the urine. The precipitation is favored not only by the production of ammonia, but also by the formation of viscid (colloid) products of fermentation. In this sense bacteria are most important factors in causing gritty deposits in the urine. Another insoluble salt which enters largely into the composition of many urinary calculi of the ox is carbonate of lime. This is derived mainly from the lime in the feed and water and from the carbon dioxid formed by the oxidation of the organic acids in the fodder. These organic acids, being composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen (without nitrogen), are resolved by the addition of oxygen into carbon dioxid (CO_{2}) and water (H_{2}O). The carbon dioxid unites with the lime in the blood to form carbonate of lime, and in this state passes into the urine. Now, carbonate of lime is soluble in water containing free or uncombined carbon dioxid, but is precipitated whenever the latter is withdrawn. It is only necessary, therefore, to have in the urine sufficient lime or other available base to unite with all the free carbon dioxid in order to bring about the precipitation of the dissolved carbonate of lime in the solid, crystallized form; hence it is that, of all sediments in the urine of herbivora, this is the most frequent and usually the most abundant. A less common constituent of urinary calculi is the insoluble oxalate of lime. In this case the lime is derived as before from the feed or water, or both, while the oxalic acid is a product of the oxidation of organic acids of the feed, less oxygen having been used than in the formation of carbon dioxid. The final product of the complete oxidation of these acids is carbon dioxid, but when less oxygen is furnished, owing to some disease of the lungs or a disease of the nerve centers, which lessens the activity of the breathing, then oxalic acid may be produced. If this oxalic acid comes into contact with lime, it is instantly precipitated as crystals of oxalate of lime. Another inorganic substance at times found in urinary calculi is silica (SiO_{2}). This contributes largely to giving stiffness to the stems of