346 THE INDIAN JOURNAL OF VETERINARY SCIENCE AND ANIMAL HUSBANDRY [ IV, IV.
The affected cases are seldom detected in their earliest stages. The condition does
not attract notice until the blood corpuscles have attained a fairly appreciable
proportion of the ejected urine, and have stained the urine distinctly red. The
disease is not suspected in the earliest stages since the admixture with the urine of
a quantity of blood serum, and microscopic amounts of blood cells, exuding from the
commencing lesions in the bladder is easily overlooked. However, suspicions having
been aroused, the disease is readily diagnosed by the microscopic examination of
centrifuged urinary deposits or by the available chemical tests for blood. Frequent
micturition, with blood passed at the end of or throughout the act, is seen, and
mild symptoms of urinary colic may appear. When the loss of blood has reached a
certain limit, the haemorrhagic urine tends to coagulate on the ground or even
inside the bladder of the affected animal. The colour of the urine may be pale pink
or bright red, depending upon the quantity of blood passed. The red corpuscles
are usually completely intact, and there is nothing unusual about their size and
shape. If there has been any retention of urine due to atony or due to an obstruc-
tion by clot formation at the urethral opening of the bladder, a crenation or actual
breaking down of red cells takes place, rendering the urine coffee-coloured. As the
disease advances, large-sized flakes of clots are also passed. Anaemic changes in the
blood appear comparatively early, which persist and gradually become worse, and
animal becomes extremely debilitated with the progress of time. When necessary,
the condition of the bladder may be ascertained by a rectal exploration.
Haematuria is characterised by a slow and progressive course with frequent
intermissions of variable duration extending from a few weeks to months. The
passage of blood may cease suddenly or by degrees, only to reappear in the same
erratic manner. This process is repeated till the animal finally succumbs to extreme
anaemia and debility, or to other complications such as severe internal haemorrh-
age into the bladder, hydronephrosis, uraemic poisoning or superadded infections of
the urinogenital system and the alimentary tract. The occurrence of diarrhoea
in the later stages of haematuria has been mentioned by a few workers, but no
causal relationship between haematuria and the development of actual diarrhoea or
the passing of semi-solid faeces mixed with mucus has been suspected. Although
the brunt of the lethal effects of the causative principle of haematuria are borne by
the urinary bladder, it is important to determine whether other internal organs
share in the untoward effects, though not quite to the same extent as the bladder.
In the uncomplicated early cases, there is apparently no evidence of kidney involve-
ment, including oedema, rise of blood pressure, or the syndrome of renal colic, etc.
Generally the disease lasts for months and years, and in the experience of Moussu
[1905] an animal aged 28 years had been suffering for as many as 20 years, but no
case of spontaneous recovery or successful treatment has yet been placed on record.