Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

ST6 CATTLE.
the belly. In examination and in operation for stone in the bladder,
this should not be lost sight of. It has three coats : the outer and
peritoneal ; the central or muscular, and the inner coat, which is
lined with numerous glands, that secrete a mucous fluid in order to
defend the bladder from the acrimony of the urine.
The bladder terminates in a small neck, aronnd which is a continua-
tion of the common muscular coat, or, in the opinion of some, a dis-
tinct circular muscle, the sphincter, whose natural state is that of
contraction ; so that the passage remains closed, and the urine re-
tained, until, the bladder being stretched to a certain extent, the
fluid is expelled either by the will of the animal, or the involuntary
contraction of the muscular coat. This muscle is weak in the ox.
Advantage may be taken of this weakness of the sphincter muscle,
for in retention of urine, or when, tot the purpose of some operation,
it may be expedient to empty the bladder, the slightest pressure
upon it by the hand introduced into the rectum will readily effect it.
Having passed the sphincter muscle, the urine flows through the
urethra and is- evacuated. This canal is long and small ; it pursues
a tortuous path. The peculiar form and direction of some of the
muscles of that region compel the penis to take a kind of double
curve, not unlike an S, before it takes its ultimate straight course
and on these accounts the ox suffers occasionally from the entanglement
of calculi in the folds of the urethra.
The bladder of thS cow is smaller and rounder than that of the
ox. The rumen is as large as in the ox, and occupies the greater
part of the abdomen ; but additional room must be left for the impregnated
uterus, and that is effected in some measure at the expense
of the bladder ; while also, to obviate the- ill effects of occasional
pressure in the distended state of the uterus, the sphincter muscle at
the neck of the bladder of the cow is much larger and stronger than
the same muscle in the ox.
The circumstances of disease to be considered with reference to
the bladder are the foreign bodies, principally calculf, which it may
contain ; the inflammation resulting from that or from other causes ;
rupture, and inversion of it.
URINARY CALCULI.
Concretions are found in the urinary passages of cattle. One
cause of their retention may be the form of the passages. Many
calculi are retained, in the bladder, and thus become the centre
around which other matter collects, layer upon layer. It it probably
on this account that calculi are found so much oftener in the ox than
the cow ; in the former the urethra is long and small, in the latter it
is short and capacious.
The great function discharged by the kidney in cattle may likewise
account for the more frequent formation of calculi. When so
;