Diseases of cattle, sheep, goats and swine

by G. Moussu; Jno. A. W. Dollar

This very specious theory, all the points in which may readily be refuted, in our opinion falls to the ground before the simple fact that hæmaturia occurs in animals which present no trace of distomatosis on post-mortem examination, and that, furthermore, it is not seen in the lower regions of the departments of the Nord, the Pas-de-Calais and the Somme, where ranunculaceæ and other irritant plants are common and distomatosis rages.

Moussu states that he has proved that hæmaturia is very rare in young animals and is exceptional before the age of two and a half years or three years; that it attacks oxen as often as cows; that it is particularly common in low regions; and that it is scarcely ever seen above a height of 800 yards. Careful investigation, moreover, shows that the passage of blood occurs just as frequently in winter, when the animals are housed, as in spring, when at pasture.

Lesions. The lesions of hæmaturia are to be found in the bladder, though in exceptional cases they may also affect the ureters and kidneys. They have been described by Pichon and Sinoir, but as these observers regarded the condition as a disease of the blood due to poor feeding, etc., they did not attach much importance to them. Detroye has described the different appearances very well, though Moussu states that he has never met with the “blisters” which he mentions.

The first period is accompanied simply by abnormal vascularity of the bladder, which appears in the form of true varicosities of the submucous vessels and intra-mucous capillaries. But if this lesion is primary, it does not correspond to the period during which blood-stained urine is passed, and is not sufficient to explain it. It always appears in the form of a more or less abundant hæmorrhagic intra-mucous, sub-epithelial spotting.

Over the hæmorrhagic area, which may be of very varied dimensions, ranging from those of a small pin’s head to those of a lentil, the epithelium is swollen and loosened, and so separated from the surrounding parts as to have lost its vitality. This patch of separated epithelium soon falls away, leaving an epithelial ulceration of the mucous membrane. The subjacent clot rapidly breaks up in contact with the liquid in the bladder, and is replaced by a small ulceration which becomes the seat of continual capillary hæmorrhage. Nevertheless, the neighbouring tissues react, and the process of repair may end either in true cicatrisation, which appears to be rare, or more frequently in the formation of exuberant granulations, which are also of the nature of a soft, bleeding vegetation. This vegetation is either sessile or pedunculated, and is of very varying size.

The wall of the bladder also reacts, becoming sclerosed and thickened beneath the granulations, so that, in animals which have long suffered from hæmaturia, it may entirely have lost its dilatability.

When the disease has existed for a certain time, sub-epithelial hæmorrhages, ulcerations, vegetations and points of sclerosis may all co-exist, a fact which shows that the disease does not develop all at once, but that, on the contrary, every little lesion develops separately and continuously. This fact also explains the length of time for which blood may be passed, despite the presence of old or healed lesions.

Finally, in very old standing cases dating from several years back (Moussu saw an animal aged twenty-eight years which had suffered from this disease for more than twenty years, but in a very intermittent fashion), it is not exceptional to find numerous papilliform vegetations 1 or 2 inches in length, either with a fine pedicle or largely sessile, invading one-half or two-thirds of the internal surface of the bladder.

These vegetations sometimes, though rarely, invade the ureters. When they occur towards the point where these conduits enter the bladder, they obstruct the passage of urine, and lead to the development of hydro-nephrosis or pyelo-nephritis.

Symptoms. The early symptoms often escape notice, because general disturbance is rare. The first appreciable signs are cystitis and frequent urination.