Cattle and Their Diseases: Embracing Their History and Breeds, Crossing and Breeding, and Feeding and Management; with the Diseases to Which They Are Subject, and the Remedies Best Adapted to Their CureJennings, Robert
Science
Cattle and Their Diseases: Embracing Their History and Breeds, Crossing and Breeding, and Feeding and Management; with the Diseases to Which They Are Subject, and the Remedies Best Adapted to Their Cure
Jennings, Robert
Cattle -- Diseases
_Symptoms._--A rough, staring coat; hide-bound; painful cough;
respiration hurried, etc.
_Treatment._--But little can be done by way of treatment in this
disease. The administration of small doses of spirits of turpentine has,
in some instances, proved successful.
SURGICAL OPERATIONS.
CASTRATION.
The period most commonly selected for this operation is between the
first and third months. The nearer it is to the expiration of the first
month, the less danger attends the operation.
Some persons prepare the animal by the administration of a dose of
physic; but others proceed at once to the operation when it best suits
their convenience, or that of the farmer. Care, however, should be taken
that the young animal is in perfect health. The mode formerly practised
was simple enough:--a piece of whip-cord was tied as tightly as possible
around the scrotum. The supply of blood being thus completely cut off,
the bag and its contents soon became livid and dead, and were suffered
to hang, by some careless operators, until they dropped off, or they
were cut off on the second or third day.
It is now, however, the general practice to grasp the scrotum in the
hand, between the testicles and the belly, and to make an incision in
one side of it, near the bottom, of sufficient depth to penetrate
through the inner covering of the testicle, and of sufficient length to
admit of its escape. The testicle immediately bursts from its bag, and
is seen hanging by its cord.
The careless or brutal operator now firmly ties a piece of small string
around the cord, and having thus stopped the circulation, cuts through
the cord, half an inch below the ligature, and removes the testicle. He,
however, who has any feeling for the poor animal on which he is
operating, considers that the only use of the ligature is to compress
the blood-vessels and prevent after-hemorrhage, and, therefore, saves a
great deal of unnecessary torture by including them alone in the
ligature, and afterwards dividing the rest of the cord. The other
testicle is proceeded with in the same way and the operation is
complete. The length of the cord should be so contrived that it will
immediately retract, or be drawn back, into the scrotum, but not higher,
while the ends of the string hang out through the wound. In the course
of about a week, the strings will usually drop off, and the wounds will
speedily heal. There will rarely be any occasion to make any
application to the scrotum, except fomentation of it, if much swelling
should ensue.
A few, whose practice cannot be justified, seize the testicle as soon as
it escapes from the bag, and, pulling violently, break the cord and tear
it out. It is certain that when a blood-vessel is thus ruptured, it
forcibly contracts, and very little bleeding follows; but if the cord
breaks high up, and retracts into the belly, considerable inflammation
has occasionally ensued, and the beast has been lost.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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