Abstract
The purpose of this study on some clinical aspects of Canine Urolithiasis was to provide essential background data for future investigations on this disease intended to be undertaken in the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies. Knowledge of the incidence of the disease in the clinic population, the incidence of the different chemical types of uroliths, and the incidence of other aspects of this disorder as it occurs in this area was therefore required, since only when these facts are available can efficient planning of future investigations into the more important aspects of this anomaly be effeeted. Dy necessity, therefore, the present investigation has in part, taken the form of a survey of these aspects in a number of clinical cases of the disease - the results of this survey are embodied in the first part of this thesis.
Although Urolithiasis has been known to be a serious condition in dogs for many years, the suspected aetiologic factors associated with urolithogenesis have been little studied and consequently the position of their individual contributions to the overall disease- complex remains obscure. In an endeavour to clarify the position of some of these causative factors, their correlation with the different chemical types of uroliths and occasionally the inter- relationships between one factor and another, were studied and the results of this have been recorded inter alia in part two.
The remaining section of this thesis deals with the analysis of uroliths obtained from the patients studied. It is immediately apparent in a condition of this kind where we are probably dealing with, not one disease, not a series of similar diseases, but a number of seemingly unrelated diseases which may have little in common apart from the resultant calculus formation, that in order to differentiate between the possible conditions involved, an accurate method of analysis of the uroliths was required. It being assumed that the different chemical types of urolith form as a result of different disorders. In this study, a combiiation of quantitative micro -- chemical and X-ray diffraction crystallographic analysis was selected to fulfil these requirements.
