Diagnosis. The diagnosis presents no difficulty when the urine can be examined; but in the periods of intermittence no opinion can be advanced. These intermittences are so frequent that in parts of the country ravaged by this disease it is a usual custom, when selling, to grant or refuse guarantees for a longer or shorter term.
The condition can be distinguished from parasitic hæmoglobinuria (piroplasmosis) or from Brou’s disease (a febrile disease of rapid development) by simply examining the urine or blood.
Prognosis. The prognosis is extremely grave, for, up to the present, no really efficacious treatment has been discovered, and although some animals may live for years without their lives being in any way endangered, this cannot possibly be foreseen, and there is no economic advantage in keeping them.
Treatment. No curative treatment is known.
It is true that iron salts, tonics, Rabel’s liquid, decoctions of certain plants, such as plantain, have been recommended, but apart from the fact that they are of doubtful efficacy, they cannot be used over long periods. All these preparations also tend to increase the coagulability of the blood; but considering that the disease is beyond question of a parasitic character, good results cannot always be expected of them.
Preventive treatment appears more hopeful, although even in this connection, the best informed appear to have considerable doubts. All those who have studied the question agree in recommending drainage of the pasturages, and their improvement by the use of various manures, particularly superphosphates and lime. These improvements alter the character of the pasture, render the soil healthier, and may perhaps prove sufficient to diminish or prevent the local growth of the germs. Under such conditions, Boudeaud declares that he has seen hæmaturia disappear from farms where it had previously been in permanent possession. It has also been recommended that the affected cattle should be sent elsewhere to places where the disease does not exist, and experience shows that spontaneous recovery is more frequent under such conditions.
It is probable that, during attacks of hæmaturia in a contaminated country, successive parasitic infestations occur, which would explain the persistence with which blood is passed, a symptom which does not occur in a healthy country. This view, however, is still only an hypothesis.
CHAPTER III.
DISEASES OF THE KIDNEYS.
CONGESTION OF THE KIDNEYS.
Congestion of the kidneys is not a morbid condition in the strict sense of the term, for it is merely the forerunner of nephritis caused by infectious diseases or intoxications (primary active congestions) or the final consequence of other diseases, such as diseases of the heart or liver, mechanical compression of the vena cava or renal veins (secondary passive congestion, cardiac kidney).