Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

352 CATTLE.
induced to eat, the griping pains are immediately increased—the
belly swells—the countenance becomes anxious—the ears, the horns,
the nose, and the thighs become cold—the pulse is small and accelerated,
and scarcely to\be felt—the breathing is laborious and heard
at a distance—the mouth and nostrils are pale. The disease con-
tinues during six, seven, or eight days: it yields to no medicine—it
is aggravated by most of the measures adopted^it is especially so if
the beast is moved about—and at length death terminates the period
of suffering. «
On examination, strangulation of some part of the intestine is
found, and generally of the small intestine. It is tied by a distinct
and evident cord—in some cases it is the spermatic cord, which,
after castration unskillfully performed, or now and then by mere ac-
cident, has been retracted into the belly, and has become enlarged,
and has had tumors forming on it, and particularly at its extremity.
Oftener it is an adventitious or unnaturally formed membrane, which
becomes entangled round the intestine, and assumes the appearance
of a cord.
The mode of operation, in castrating bullocks, is often very absurd.
Some practitioners pride themselves on performing it with scarcely
the loss of any blood. They open the scrotum, and lay bare the
spermatic cord, and then, by mere dint of pulling and twisting, they
tear it out. There is, certainly, no bleeding, and the portion that
remains 'immediately retracts into the belly ; but the consequence of
all this violence is that inflammation ensues—tumors, false membranes
are formed, and the foundation is laid for this complaint.
Others draw the cord out as far as they can without tearing it, and
then cut it off close to the pelvis. There is no external bleeding in
this case ; but there is bleeding within the cavity of the belly, and a
source of irritation is set up by the presence of this blood, and va-
rious abdominal diseases ensue, and, among the rest, the cords, or
gut-tie. .j
It is not, however, to be uniformly traced to this cause alone. It
seems, especially, to prevail in low and damp situations—it has followed
the use of half mouldy and unwhcJesome fodder—it has
seemed to be connected with hard work, and that on an irregular or
steep surface ; and some have imagined that it is most prevalent
where the floor of the ox stables is too much inclined, on account of
the great pressure on this part of the abdomen, and especially in the
act of rising. It can be readily believed that any source of irritation,
whether of the spermatic cord, or of the intestines lying in the
neighborhood of it, or of the intestinal canal generally—in fact, that
any or all of the sources of common colic may be the predisposing
or immediate causes of this species of strangulation.
Although it has been stated thai no medicine seems to be of
avail, the patient should not be abandoned. There is an operation,