Catheterization in the Ram and Wether. These must be dealt with like the bull, the only additional difficulty being in the vermiform appendix. This is small and sinuous but the longitudinal opening on its lower surface is favorable to the introduction of the catheter.
Catheterization in the Dog. The fact that the urethra traverses the groove on the lower aspect of the bone of the penis, is held to prove an obstacle to the catheter, yet the introduction of the latter is in no sense difficult. Small or moderately sized dogs, may be held upright, the body resting on the rump and the pelvis inclined forward, which will favor the spontaneous protrusion of the penis. Or it may be pressed out by manipulation through the sheath. The catheter ⅔ ds. to 1 line in diameter may be 1¼ to 2 feet in length according to the size of the animal. It should be used aseptic.
Catheterization of the Mare. Nothing can be easier than this operation in the mare. The shortness and dilatability of the urethra, and the accessibility of its external orifice in the center of the floor of the vulva, 4 or 5 inches in front of the lower commissure, favors the introduction of the catheter. The latter may be a foot in length, perfectly straight and it may be constructed of silver or some other metal, which may be readily boiled and rendered aseptic. In the absence of a catheter the germ free nozzle of a rectal syringe may be used, or two fingers may be passed through the urethra and parted from each other so as to allow the exit of the urine.
Catheterization of the Cow and Heifer. The operation is often very difficult in the cow, by reason of the small size and undilatability of the urethra, and by the presence of two blind ducts (canals of Goërtner) above and to the two sides of the urethral opening. The thin rigid upper margin of the orifice projects down over it in a valvular manner so that the catheter will almost always find its way into one of the blind sacs. By introducing the tip of the index finger beneath the valvular fold and into the opening of the canal, the catheter may be directed beneath it and into the bladder. An apparatus consisting of a series of ribs of spring wire arranged in the form of a funnel and converging at one end to a point has been devised to insert into the urethral orifice, and guide the catheter which is passed through it.
Catheterization of the Bitch. The operation is rendered difficult by the narrowness of the passage, and the puckers and folds of the vaginal mucosa which serve to hide the urethral orifice. A small catheter like that used on the male is used or a short metallic catheter may be substituted. By directing this forward exactly in the median line of the floor of the vulva, with gentle pressure downward it may be made to enter the urethra. In case of special difficulty a bivalve speculum may be resorted to, to efface the mucous folds and reveal the orifice.
ACUTE PROSTATITIS AND HYPERÆMIA OF THE PROSTATE.
Causes: In dogs, house life, overfeeding, compulsory retention of urine, and fæces, constipation, proctitis (rectitis), piles, calculi, strangury, uric acid, urethral ulceration or stricture, rude catheterization, chill, generative excitement to excess, secondary abscess or infection. Forms. Lesions: follicular, interstitial, circumscribed and diffuse suppuration. Symptoms: frequent straining urination, rectal palpation, incontinence of urine, costiveness, tender perineum, dullness, recumbency, fever, pus in urine, collapse of swelling, fistula. Diagnosis. Prognosis: grave. Treatment: laxatives, mercurials, salines, leeches, acid laxative, non-stimulating, camphor, bromides, ergot, witch hazel, opium, belladonna, enemata of cold water, or ice suppository, catheterization, perineal incision, antiseptics.
Causes. This is most commonly seen in dogs, in which it may depend on house life with overfeeding on stimulating, spiced, albuminous food, compulsory restraint of urination and defecation in obedience to the demands of cleanliness, distended bladder, and rectum, constipation, proctitis, piles, and other sources of local irritation. In all animals its origin is favored by the formation or arrest of calculi in the prostate, the pelvic urethra or even the bladder; by drug strangury from cantharides or other irritant diuretic; by excess of urea, uric acid or other irritant in the urine; by infection extending from the urethra or bladder; by ulceration or stricture of the urethra; by rude or incautious catheterization, or injection; by exposure to cold; and by local infection in pyæmia and other general zymotic disorders. Most of these conditions conduce to local excitement and hyperæmia, which from adjacent organs, are sympathetically transferred to the prostate. The same is true of frequent, and intense generative excitement which according to Lafosse and Cadiot is a common cause of prostatitis in stud horses. Again the abscess of strangles may become localized in the prostate, or the nodule of glanders, or the tubercle of tuberculosis (cattle, pigs, dogs). Cadiot suggests that in animals, divested of the tail, external injuries to the perineum may extend by continuity to the prostate, as happens to man from horseback or bicycle riding. He adduces no cases however. The habit of masturbation acquired by certain males may also be adduced theoretically as both cause and consequence of prostatitis but future observation must show how frequently this really operates.
Forms. Lesions. According to the nature of the lesions the affection has been divided into different forms 1st, Follicular or Parenchymatous; 2d, Diffuse or Interstitial; 3d, Circumscribed Prostatic Abscess; 4th, Multiple Miliary Abscesses.
Follicular Prostatitis implicates primarily the follicles and gland ducts and finally the entire gland tissue. It is usually associated with and doubtless often proves an extension from an adjacent infective urethritis, and tends, in persistent cases, to go on to interstitial inflammation and abscess, or hypertrophy. This is characterized by more or less swelling of the prostate, with increased vascularity of its mucosa and the oozing from its openings and gland ducts under pressure, of a thick, yellow, gelatinoid fluid containing pus and granular epithelial cells and sometimes striæ of blood.