Dog Anatomy Kidneys

Dog Anatomy Kidneys

Blood disposes of certain chemical substances other than gases through the kidneys. It travels through their intricate mechanism, disposing of excess water and wastes such as urea (the end product of the breakdown of proteins in the body), sugar, poisons, and carbonates.

In the most dogs, the kidneys are located on either side of the body close to the backbone and are partially protected by the ribs. They constitute one of the most delicate and ingenious filter plants imaginable. Anyone who has eaten kidneys or fed them to dogs knows in general what they look like. But few have observed, microscopically, the minute inner workings or wondered at their remarkable construction. If you slice a kidney lengthwise, you will see the so-called pelvis, a pocket for collecting urine which is then conducted via a tube there to the bladder.

The microscope, however, reveals the really interesting features of this organ: the blood vessels, which divide to become capillaries, in tiny containers called gloomier and minute collecting tubules into which the urine filters and is conveyed to the pelvis. These are beautiful and clever arrangements to effect the transfer and re-absorption into the blood of certain useful substances and the rejection of the useless ones all of which are accomplished while the blood is passing through the kidneys, entering under high pressure and emerging under much lower pressure.

Diseases can easily upset the normal function of the kidneys so that they cannot retain useful nitrogenous substances like albumin. Under certain circumstances the kidneys may lose their absorptive capacity so that too much water is secreted from the blood, causing great thirst. Albumin in urine and excessive thirst are both indications of kidney disease or dysfunction.

Kidneys that function properly regulate the amounts of blood ingredients to a considerable degree. If too much sugar is present, some will be found in the urine. The same may be said of salt. Urine is composed mostly of water (95 percent). Urea constitutes about 2.3 percent, salt 1.1 percent, and the balance, 1.6 percent, is composed of other solids. The bladder is a reservoir with remarkably elastic walls.

Other impurities and surpluses from the blood – some mineral salts, for instance, are also excreted into the intestines; some gases are excreted by the lungs and still other sub-stances by the skin in sweat, although this is minimal in dogs. Thus the excretory system is composed of four parts.

Information on Dog Anatomy Kidneys

• The renal artery of the canine kidney is divided into the dorsal and ventral branches.
• By deeply studying the pattern of the divisions of the dorsal and the renal artery the blood vessels are divided into type one and type 2 categories.
• The type one branching consists of the cranial and caudal arteries while the type two branches consist of the caudal and memorial arteries.
• Scientific investigation has shown that caudal branches in both the ventral and dorsal parts of the renal artery play a very significant role in renal arterial supply.

Though the human kidney anatomy may differ from that of a dog’s kidney the relationship and the function of the arteries with the collecting system of the cranial pole of the kidney are the same in dogs as it is in human beings.

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