From the clinical point of view very complete analyses are not necessary, but the tests for albumen, sugar, bile pigments and indican are absolutely indispensable; and the same is true of microscopic examination for ascertaining the presence or absence of epithelial cylinders, blood corpuscles, pus corpuscles, etc. It is important also to note the colour and odour and the quantity passed.
These examinations are by no means difficult. Albumen is detected by adding a few drops of acetic acid to the urine, and heating, or by adding nitric acid and Esbach’s liquid. Esbach’s albumenimeter is sufficiently exact to discover the approximate amount of albumen present. Sugar is detected by the use of Fehling’s solution, bile pigments by nitric acid, and indican by adding a few drops of 10 per cent. chloride of calcium solution and hydrochloric acid. Should indican be present a more or less deeply tinted indigo blue circle appears, resulting from its oxidation.
Hippuric acid is precipitated by pure hydrochloric acid.
CHAPTER I.
POLYPI OF THE GLANS PENIS AND SHEATH.
In young animals the extremity of the glans penis and the margins of the sheath are not infrequently studded with polypi, soft swellings of papillomatous or verrucous appearance, sometimes of considerable size, which interfere with micturition, and deform the glans. The existence of these growths is shown by very well marked signs—viz., difficulty in micturition, deformity of the sheath, deviation of the jet of urine, obstruction in the passage of the penis, and more or less marked deformity of the penis itself.
These polypi are of the same nature as those so common in dogs, viz., papillomata.
The diagnosis is very easy. On digital examination the growths are almost always found at the base of the sheath.
At an early stage the prognosis is benign, provided intervention is promptly undertaken. If the disease is of old standing, or is not treated, the animals may become somewhat thin. They suffer pain, caused by retention of urine and inflammation of the sheath; urethritis may even be set up.
The treatment is fairly easy, and is exclusively surgical; but as it necessitates casting the animals the bladder should first be examined per rectum, and operation should never be attempted until the bladder has been emptied so as to avoid possible rupture. The animal being fixed on its back, the penis is withdrawn from the sheath, and the polypi can then be snipped off with scissors, the wounds being slightly cauterised to arrest hæmorrhage: in the case of the sheath, rather extensive wounds must sometimes be produced; these may be sutured.
To prevent the wounds afterwards becoming infected and suppurating, the sheath should be regularly washed out with an antiseptic solution and the animal kept on a very clean bed.