For renal calculus little can be done. That little, however, consists in mingling two drachms of hydrochloric acid with every pail of water, and allowing the animal to imbibe as much as it pleases. Should the medicated drink be refused, the horse must be starved into accepting it. With this liquid, however, the stone must be small to be dissolved; but it effectually checks the further increase of the calculus.
Lithotomy is the name given to that operation by which large stones are removed from the bladder of the horse. It is far too complicated and too serious a proceeding to be entrusted to any general reader. No direction which possibly could be misconstrued shall, therefore, be attempted. When an operation is required for stone in the bladder, a qualified veterinary surgeon had better be employed. Mr. Simmonds, of the Royal Veterinary College, Camden Town, however, deserves praise for having invented an instrument by means of which stone can generally be removed from the bladder of the mare without resort to the knife being necessary.
HEMATURIA, OR BLOODY URINE.
The name fully characterizes this affection. The blood emitted may consist of small clots; it may congeal after it has left the body; or it may be entirely mingled with—giving a brownish tinge to—the water. Upon the exhibition of this disorder, always treat the symptoms first; when all chance of immediate danger has disappeared, examine the body to ascertain whence the hemorrhage proceeded, because in this affection the symptoms really constitute the disease; and when the first has disappeared, the last is cured.
A HORSE SUFFERING FROM HEMATURIA, OR BLOODY URINE.
The extent of the bleeding, of course, regulates the symptoms. When that is copious, the breathing is short and quick; the pupils of the eye are dilated; the pulse is not to be felt at the jaw; the head is pendulous; and the visible mucous membranes are cold as well as pallid. Lifting the head produces staggering; if continued, the animal would fall. The back is roached; the flanks are tucked up, and the legs widely separated, as though the horse was aware of its inability to support its body.
The treatment consists in disturbing the sufferer as little as possible; in acting upon the report received, for in a case of this kind it is hardly credible there should be any mistake. Administer, as gently as it can be done, two drachms of acetate of lead in half a pint of cold water, or as a ball, if one can be delivered. If this has no effect, in a quarter of an hour, or sooner should the symptoms demand haste, repeat the dose, adding, however, one ounce of laudanum or two drachms of powdered opium. Give two more drinks or balls of the like composition; but should these be followed by no beneficial result, change the medicine after the administration of one ounce of acetate of lead.
When the indications are not alarming, the horse may be left for a couple of hours, with strict orders that the animal be watched, but on no account disturbed. Should, however, activity be required, obtain some of the coldest water, and have several pailfuls dashed from a height upon the loins. After this inject some of the same fluid, allowing the water to flow freely forth from the anus—the object only being to procure the advantages of excessive cold. For medicine, a trial may be made of the ergot of rye. Pour on to four drachms of the drug half a pint of boiling water, and, when cold, add one ounce of laudanum and four ounces of dilute acetic acid—not vinegar, as that always contains sulphuric acid, which would counteract the action of the lead. Two drinks, two enemas, (each lasting twenty minutes,) and any quantity of water upon the loins will serve for the second hour.
If these remedies have produced no change, all further treatment must be suspended for eight hours, at the expiration of which period the treatment may be resumed, and the previous measures repeated.