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Cystic Calculi in a Bitch
CLINICAL ARTICLES.
vertebrce, and there was also some subcutaneous effusion under the body. Diuretics and tonics prescribed. Tuberculosis or melanosis feared. On 5th December the mare, on being exercised for the first time since the attack, repeated the colicky performance of 30th November. On the evening of 15th December she was inoculated with tuberculin, and her temperature was regularly recorded until 7 A.M. on the 17th. There was no reaction. On 18th and 22nd December exercise was again attempted, and with the same results as before. Her appetite remained unimpaired during the whole period, until she was found dead on the morning of the 17th January. There was no evidence of any death struggle. The autopsy next day revealed an emaciated carcase, with former swellings almost disappeared, but a soft enlargement inside the off thigh, involving the mammary gland, and containing a serous fluid. There was no fcetus present. The abdominal cavity contained about I! gallons of serous fluid. Peritoneum much discoloured. Mesenteric Mesenteric glands greatly enlarged and blood-vessels engorged. softened. Mucous membrane of stomach and intestines apparently healthy. Spleen enlarged, but free from tumours. Liver darker than normal, and very friable. Kidneys normaL Thorax contained about 2t gallons of serous fluid. Lungs pleural and pericardium discoloured. Heart hypertrophied. Tracheal glands tremendously enlarged. Portions of the viscera were forwarded to Professor M'Fadyean, who reported that the enlarged mesenteric and tracheal lymphatic glands had a structure which indicated a condition of hyperplasia, the bulk of the new tissue being composed of un i-nuclear lymphocytes. There was no evidence of caseation or other degeneration, and no giant cells were present. Sections and scrapings from the diseased glands were stained for tubercle bacilli, but with a negative result.
CYSTIC
CALCULI
IN
A
BITCH.
By HENRY GRAY, M.R.C.V.S., London. SUBJECT.-An aged (about ten years) small fox-terrier bitch, very fat. For some time she had been noticed to have a great difficulty in passing urine, the act appearing to cause her pain. The last two days before I was consulted she made several attempts to pass urine, which was bloody and in small quantity; there was also occasional vomiting, drowsiness, loss of spirit, a desire for sleep, and no inclination for exercise. On 20th March she was brought to me, because the owner thought she had been injured. On examination I found strings of bloody fibrin hanging from the inferior commissure of the vulva. The vagina was constricted, as it generally is in old bitches which have never borne young, and on separating the lips of the vulva a large quantity of bloody urine escaped. About Ii in. from the vulva I detected a calculus the size of a large marble in the urethra, and on manipulating it with the two index fingers-one in the rectum and the other in the vagina-seven small calculi, each about the size of a tare and of a triangular form, shot from the vagina when the bitch matle some expulsive efforts. After several unsuccessful attempts to dislodge the large calculus I chloroformed the animal, dilated the
88
REPORT.
vagina by means of a Kramer's ear speculum, and made a vertical incision on to the stone and extracted it. Further search was made to find if there were any more calculi in the bladder, but in this direction I failed. However, on making a post-mortem examination on the bitch, which died during the early hours of the 2 I st March, I found two other calculi-one the size of a marble, which had since the operation become lodged in the neck of the bladder, and the other the size of a tare seed. The mucous membrane of the bladder was the seat of intense inflammation, its surface being rough and of a dark almost h;:emorrhagic tint. The gastric mucous membrane was much congested. Although I have frequently seen urethral calculi in the dog, the above-mentioned case is the first one I have encountered in the bitch. In the dog my experience leads me to conclude that \vhenever there is h;ematuria accompanied with calculi the case ends fatally. This may be due, perhaps, to the fact that I have only seen cases which had been neglected a day or two before I have seen them.
!\tport. TICK FEVER IN QUEENSLAND. 1 THE observations and experiments recorded in this report were made hy Mr W. Collins and Dr J. Sidney Hunt, at the instance of Mr P. R. Gordon, Chief Inspector of Stock, acting under the authority of the Hon. Horace Tozer, Home Secretary. The disease to which they refer had been known in the Northern Territory of South Australia for a considerable number of years, without, however, apparently attracting the serious attention of the authorities of that colony. Thence it had been carried across the Queensland border, and by the end of the year 1894 had already spread widely in the Gulf district. In 1894 the trouble had become so serious that Mr C. J. Pound, the Government Bacteriologist, was sent to investigate and report upon the matter. During 1895 the disease had spread South and East with alarming rapidity, and before the beginning of 1896 had extended to the Eastern coast, where its ravages were so peculiarly destructive as to give rise in certain places to the idea that it was a wholly different and more malignant disease than that which had been reported from the Gulf country. In consequence of representations to this effect a commissioner was sent by the Government to inquire into and report upon this question, with the result that the disease was found to be identical with that prevailing in other parts, except for an increased malignancy, due prabably to climatic conditions. Up to this time the malady was generally known as "Redwater disease," a peculiarly unfortunate name, since it was based on a phenomenon which is only an incidental, and by no means invariable, symptom of the disease. But, far more important than this, the name" Redwater disease" conveyed no hint or warning of the nature of the impending plague. Could it have been from 1 Extract from "Report on Tick Fever," by Dr.J. Sidney Hunt :lull l'tIr William Collins: Brisbane, 1896.
vertebrce, and there was also some subcutaneous effusion under the body. Diuretics and tonics prescribed. Tuberculosis or melanosis feared. On 5th December the mare, on being exercised for the first time since the attack, repeated the colicky performance of 30th November. On the evening of 15th December she was inoculated with tuberculin, and her temperature was regularly recorded until 7 A.M. on the 17th. There was no reaction. On 18th and 22nd December exercise was again attempted, and with the same results as before. Her appetite remained unimpaired during the whole period, until she was found dead on the morning of the 17th January. There was no evidence of any death struggle. The autopsy next day revealed an emaciated carcase, with former swellings almost disappeared, but a soft enlargement inside the off thigh, involving the mammary gland, and containing a serous fluid. There was no fcetus present. The abdominal cavity contained about I! gallons of serous fluid. Peritoneum much discoloured. Mesenteric Mesenteric glands greatly enlarged and blood-vessels engorged. softened. Mucous membrane of stomach and intestines apparently healthy. Spleen enlarged, but free from tumours. Liver darker than normal, and very friable. Kidneys normaL Thorax contained about 2t gallons of serous fluid. Lungs pleural and pericardium discoloured. Heart hypertrophied. Tracheal glands tremendously enlarged. Portions of the viscera were forwarded to Professor M'Fadyean, who reported that the enlarged mesenteric and tracheal lymphatic glands had a structure which indicated a condition of hyperplasia, the bulk of the new tissue being composed of un i-nuclear lymphocytes. There was no evidence of caseation or other degeneration, and no giant cells were present. Sections and scrapings from the diseased glands were stained for tubercle bacilli, but with a negative result.
CYSTIC
CALCULI
IN
A
BITCH.
By HENRY GRAY, M.R.C.V.S., London. SUBJECT.-An aged (about ten years) small fox-terrier bitch, very fat. For some time she had been noticed to have a great difficulty in passing urine, the act appearing to cause her pain. The last two days before I was consulted she made several attempts to pass urine, which was bloody and in small quantity; there was also occasional vomiting, drowsiness, loss of spirit, a desire for sleep, and no inclination for exercise. On 20th March she was brought to me, because the owner thought she had been injured. On examination I found strings of bloody fibrin hanging from the inferior commissure of the vulva. The vagina was constricted, as it generally is in old bitches which have never borne young, and on separating the lips of the vulva a large quantity of bloody urine escaped. About Ii in. from the vulva I detected a calculus the size of a large marble in the urethra, and on manipulating it with the two index fingers-one in the rectum and the other in the vagina-seven small calculi, each about the size of a tare and of a triangular form, shot from the vagina when the bitch matle some expulsive efforts. After several unsuccessful attempts to dislodge the large calculus I chloroformed the animal, dilated the
88
REPORT.
vagina by means of a Kramer's ear speculum, and made a vertical incision on to the stone and extracted it. Further search was made to find if there were any more calculi in the bladder, but in this direction I failed. However, on making a post-mortem examination on the bitch, which died during the early hours of the 2 I st March, I found two other calculi-one the size of a marble, which had since the operation become lodged in the neck of the bladder, and the other the size of a tare seed. The mucous membrane of the bladder was the seat of intense inflammation, its surface being rough and of a dark almost h;:emorrhagic tint. The gastric mucous membrane was much congested. Although I have frequently seen urethral calculi in the dog, the above-mentioned case is the first one I have encountered in the bitch. In the dog my experience leads me to conclude that \vhenever there is h;ematuria accompanied with calculi the case ends fatally. This may be due, perhaps, to the fact that I have only seen cases which had been neglected a day or two before I have seen them.
!\tport. TICK FEVER IN QUEENSLAND. 1 THE observations and experiments recorded in this report were made hy Mr W. Collins and Dr J. Sidney Hunt, at the instance of Mr P. R. Gordon, Chief Inspector of Stock, acting under the authority of the Hon. Horace Tozer, Home Secretary. The disease to which they refer had been known in the Northern Territory of South Australia for a considerable number of years, without, however, apparently attracting the serious attention of the authorities of that colony. Thence it had been carried across the Queensland border, and by the end of the year 1894 had already spread widely in the Gulf district. In 1894 the trouble had become so serious that Mr C. J. Pound, the Government Bacteriologist, was sent to investigate and report upon the matter. During 1895 the disease had spread South and East with alarming rapidity, and before the beginning of 1896 had extended to the Eastern coast, where its ravages were so peculiarly destructive as to give rise in certain places to the idea that it was a wholly different and more malignant disease than that which had been reported from the Gulf country. In consequence of representations to this effect a commissioner was sent by the Government to inquire into and report upon this question, with the result that the disease was found to be identical with that prevailing in other parts, except for an increased malignancy, due prabably to climatic conditions. Up to this time the malady was generally known as "Redwater disease," a peculiarly unfortunate name, since it was based on a phenomenon which is only an incidental, and by no means invariable, symptom of the disease. But, far more important than this, the name" Redwater disease" conveyed no hint or warning of the nature of the impending plague. Could it have been from 1 Extract from "Report on Tick Fever," by Dr.J. Sidney Hunt :lull l'tIr William Collins: Brisbane, 1896.