Part 36

=Bluish green= will come from feeding =indigo=.

=White or yellow color= will result from the presence of =pus=.

=White, chylous urine= occurs with a hæmatozöon (=Bilharzia Crassa=) in the blood of cattle.

=Translucency.= Urine may be passed clear and become turbid by standing. The presence of colloids hinders precipitation and prevents clearing.

=Horse=: Urine is generally turbid, especially what has been long in the bladder, and that which is last passed. The turbidity is largely due to precipitation of calcium carbonate and bicarbonate, and increases on green food, or if the liquid stands exposed to the air and is cooled. Not unfrequently the salts are thrown down as fine spherical granules, or there may be a white pultaceous mass. They are sometimes entangled in extremely mobile cylindroid masses coming from the uriniferous tubes during convalescence from fevers or during fasting. A fine pellicle on the surface is normal in horse’s urine left in the air.

=Ox, Sheep and Goat=: Urine is passed clear. May become turbid through the change of lime carbonate into bicarbonate in cattle but always more slowly than in the horse.

=Carnivora=: Urine is passed clear but becomes turbid on decomposition, or if concentrated. With excess of fat in the food it may become opaque from floating oil globules, apart from the classic chyluria.

=Pig=: Fed on raw fresh vegetables the urine is clear, but if on cooked or dried vegetables, and especially if nitrogenous, it may show opacity.

=Pathological=: The =horse’s= urine is limpid and acid in polyuria; limpid and alkaline or neutral with modified phosphates. It may be morbidly turbid from excess of lime phosphate or sulphate, urea or other acid salts, exudates, leucocytes or pus. These usually indicate nephritis. Mucus and muco-purulent exudate suggest pyelitis or pelvic nephritis. Blood elements indicate nephritis, cystitis or urethritis. Debris of kidney tissue may indicate tuberculosis; tumors, etc.

Turbidity in =other animals= than solipeds is abnormal: examine the urine.

=Consistency of Urine.= Morbid urine may be gluey, sizy, syrupy, mucous, oily. If a =horse’s= urine is scanty a =slight siziness= may be normal and due to tenacious mucus from the pelvis of the kidney, and from the solution of mucin and epithelium in the alkaline fluid. =Viscous=, =sizy=, =stringy=, and =tarry= (=pitchy=) urine is found in pyelitis, pyelo-nephritis, or cystic catarrh, but not in polyuria owing to the presence of the solvent acid.

=Odor of Urine.= This is somewhat =aromatic= in =horse= and =ox=, =disagreeable= in the =dog=, and =repulsively heavy= in the =cat=. With polyuria the odor is less. If the urine has been =retained= and =fermented= it is =ammoniacal=, if there are =ulcers= or =tumors= it is =fœtid=, in =diabetes= it smells of =acetone=, after taking =turpentine= it has a =violet odor=, and after phenic acid, camphor, ether and other drugs it is variously modified.

=Specific Gravity of Urine= in ratio to water 1000:

Horse, 1020 to 1050 (1040) Ox, 1025 „ 1045 (1030) Sheep; Goat, 1015 „ 1065 (1040) Dog, 1020 „ 1060 (1040) Pig, 1005 „ 1015 (1010) Cat, 1020 „ 1040 (1030)

In the horse the urine may be 1001 to 1010 in polyuria, in chronic interstitial nephritis, and in a crisis of fever attended by diuresis. It may be 1050 to 1060 in glycosuria. Undissolved solids that are merely suspended in the urine do not affect its density.

A rough estimate of solids may be made by multiplying the last two figures of a specific gravity expressed in four figures by 2.33. The result approximates to the number of grammes of solids in 1000 cc.

=Chemical Reaction of Urine.= The liquid is tested by litmus paper, red and blue, weakly impregnated. The normal reaction is determined by the food: the urine of =carnivora= and =sucking herbivora= is =acid= turning blue litmus red: the urine of =vegetable feeders= is alkaline turning reds blue. In the =horse= the =alkalinity= is mainly due to excess of lime bicarbonate, passing, with standing, into lime carbonate, the carbon dioxide being derived from organic acids (lactic, malic, citric, etc.), by oxidation. The hippurates are also alkaline in reaction. In =dogs= the acidity is due to lime and soda phosphates, sulphates, urates and oxalates.

=Pathologically= we find the urine strongly =alkaline= from the evolution of ammonia from urea, in fermentations occurring with prolonged retention in the bladder or in cystitis. The urine is =acid= even in herbivora in all fevers in which appetite is lost or seriously impaired, and in which the metabolism is excessive.

=Chemical Changes in the Urine in Disease.= =Sodium Chloride=, is present in large amount in health (horse 25 to 35 grammes, dog 0.25 to 5 grammes daily) is =diminished= in fever, anæmia, visceral and exudative inflammations. It is =increased= during the absorption of false membranes and exudates. It is thrown down by adding solution of nitrate of silver, the curdy white precipitate being insoluble in nitric acid.

=Phosphates of lime, soda, potash and, scantily, of magnesia= are normally present (horse 0.08 to 0.60 gramme phosphoric acid daily) and are present in excess in digestive disorders and in malnutrition of bones (rachitis, osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis). The =alkaline phosphates= are very soluble and never precipitated. =Earthy phosphates= dissolve in acid urine, but are precipitated from alkaline. To a little of the urine add a few drops of acetic acid, followed by a few drops of uranium acetate. A yellow precipitate of uranium and ammonium double phosphate is thrown down.

=Indican= (C{8}H{7}NSO_{4}) is formed from indol which passes successively through the forms of indoxyle and indoxylid potassio-sulphate. This is normally present in the urine, the horse excreting 1 to 2 grammes daily, the dog 0.15 gramme. It is present in excess in intestinal indigestions, constituting indicanuria. It is tested by adding a drop of muriatic acid and one of a solution of chloride of lime to the urine, when it will show a blue ring, the depth of which indicates the relative amount.

=Urea= (CON{2}H{4}) the principal waste product of nitrogenous matter, is always present in considerable amount. The sound horse may eliminate 100 to 200 grammes daily, the dog 5 to 180 grammes. It is present in excess in all fevers and inflammations unless urination is suspended or impaired, in cryptogamic diuresis, in mellituria, uræmia, nephritis and cystitis. Test: The addition to a filtered solution of urine, freed from phosphates, of solution of acid nitrate of mercury, precipitates it as nitrate of urea. A simpler test is to add to a drop or two of urine on a glass slide a drop of nitric acid and heat gently. The nitrate of urea is precipitated in the characteristic rhombic or hexagonal crystals as seen under the microscope. Heat urea crystals in a test tube: biuret is formed and ammonia escapes. Add a trace of a copper sulphate solution and a few drops of a 20 per cent. solution of caustic potash: a rose-red color is produced—the biuret reaction.

=Uric Acid= (C{5}H{4}N{4}O{3}). Traces only of this are found in the normal herbivorous urine, yet it is more abundant when on a full dry grain diet, on milk (suckling) or on animal food. The dog kept on animal food has a large amount.

=Pathologically= it is produced in the dog and even in the horse in fever, overwork and starvation, the animal living on his own tissues. Interference with oxidation in the lungs seems to produce it as an arrest in the transformation of albuminoids to urea. The neutral urate of soda remains in solution: the acid urate of soda is precipitated. Test: To the urine add one-fourth its volume of muriatic acid and set aside for 24 hours in a cool place. On the bottom and sides of the glass and on the surface of the liquid will be found the yellowish red acicular crystals of uric acid.

=Hippuric Acid= (C{9}H{9}NO_{3}) is normally present in all urine, but is especially abundant in that of herbivora. The horse eliminates 60 to 160 grammes daily. It has been found to be increased by feeding on dandelion, carrots, clover, asparagus, apples, plums, benzoic acid, oil of bitter almonds, toluol, cinnamic or kinic acid. It is absent in sucking calves, and horses fed on grain devoid of husk. =Pathologically= it is increased in hyperthermia, icterus, some liver diseases and diseased kidneys. Test: Precipitate any albumen by nitric acid and boiling, then add hydrochloric acid which precipitates the hippuric acid in long needle-like crystals. Heated in a small glass tube it forms an oily liquid, and heated to redness gives off an odor of hydrocyanic acid (nitro-benzol) and carbon is left. This distinguishes alike from uric acid and benzoic.

=Phenol= is produced by intestinal fermentation. The horse normally excretes about 3 grammes daily. Pathologically it appears in excess in indigestions, abscesses, softened discharging tubercle, pyæmia, and septicæmia. Test: Dilute solutions of ferric salts give a blue coloration.

=Creatinin=, a product of metabolism of albuminoids, is found especially in the urine of carnivora and omnivora in health. It is pathologically increased when oxidation is interfered with, as in diseases of the lungs. Test: Add to the urine a very dilute solution of sodium nitro-prusside and then drop by drop some solution of caustic soda, when a ruby red color is shown and disappears again on boiling. Acetic acid changes to blue.

=Acetone= (C{3} H{6} O) is found in the urine of healthy omnivora and carnivora and increased by excess of nitrogenous food. Pathologically it has been found in fevers with much blood change, in inanition, in cancer, in indigestions, and auto-intoxications. Test: To several c c. of urine add a few drops of iodo-potassic iodide solution and caustic potash when iodoform will be abundantly precipitated with its characteristic color and odor.