(A) The Strongylus Gigas

This worm is sometimes of a red colour, from its food consisting of blood drawn from the vessels of the kidney; at other times white, when suppuration has taken place around it in its habitat. The head is obtuse; the mouth small and orbicular, and surrounded by six papillae; the body is cylindrical and elongated, and marked by tranverse and longitudinal impressions; the tail of the male is blunt, and terminated by a dilated membranous pouch, from which a slender point projects; the female's tail is straighter and thicker.

The usual abode of the strongylus is the kidney; at first situated in the pelvis and calices of that organ. In a few cases it has been met with in the ureter and bladder; in one recorded instance it occupied the whole length of the ureter. In another case, already mentioned, the worm was lodged in the urethra and obstructed the flow of urine. It has also been observed in parts contiguous to the urinary passage. . Thus, Leblanc observed in three living dogs a subcutaneous tumour near the penis, which contained a strongylus, which had evidently passed through an abnormal opening in the urethra into the adjacent areolar tissue. Again, Plasse found in a dog, three strongyli, one of which was partly in the abdomen, having passed through the ruptured renal capsule, and partly in the kidney. In such cases, the worm probably makes its way out of its usual habitat after the death of its host.

From two to eight have been found in the same animal.

Symptoms

The symptoms vary. In some cases, the dog ails nothing; in others, he is wasted, weak, and writhes and howls night and day. When the ureter and urethra are not obstructed, the discharged urine is purulent or bloody; there may be suppression of urine when the kidneys are disorganized, as they often are to a very great extent, and obstruction when the worm lies in the passages. The urine is passed drop by drop, and with great urging and pain, when the worm is in the bladder. The eggs of the worm are seen in the urine by the aid of the microscope. This is the only diagnostic sign of the existence of the strongylus.

(b) M. Vulpian found a nematoid larval worm in the kidneys of a dog. The kidneys presented a large number of small colourless tumours, from 80 to 100 in each kidney, and chiefly situated under the proper capsule of the organ. In the majority of these tumours a small worm was found; whilst in others, no parasite could be discovered, probably because it had perished and disappeared. Redi met with somewhat similar cases.

(c) Hydatids have been found in the dog's kidney, according to Youatt.

Treatment

Turpentine is the most likely medicine to do good for worms in the kidney.