Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

. The
CATTLE.
chance of success in the treatment of such a disease must be
little. The first object is to relieve the sad oppression under which
the animal labors, and that must be effected by puncturing the belly,
and suffering the fluid to escape. There is neither art nor danger
about the operation. The beast should be tied up close, and a side
line put on ; a puncture should be made with a lancet or trochar
under the belly, six or eight inches from the udder, and half as much
from the middle line of the belly, and on the right side—the milk
vein and the artery which accompanies it being carefully avoided.
The opening should not be larger than would admit the little finger
and if it be made with the trochar, the tube may be left in the wound
until the fluid has quite run out.
The wound being thus small, there is no need for the often fruitless
i care to close it again with adhesive plaster when the purpose for
which it was made has been effected. There will not only be no
danger, but manifest advantage, in a small drain of this kind being
left open ; for the fluid which may continue to be secreted will drib-
ble away during two or three days, and thus permit the peritoneal
membrane and the abdominal viscera (freed from the oppression
around them) to recover their healthy tone ; whereas, if the wound
be immediately closed, the fluid of dropsy will begin at once to
accumulate again, and there will be far less chance of effecting permanent
benefit. The quantity of fluid that is sometimes got rid of
by means of this operation is very great. It is by no means uncommon
for twenty gallons to escape, and there are records of thirty-two
gallons having been drawn at once. There is little chance of permanent
cure in cases like these, for there must have been great disease
and disorganization in order to produce effusion to this' extent, and
that disease must have been of long standing, and therefore not easy
to be removed. In addition to this, all the viscera of the abdomen
must have been debilitated, and have lost their natural tone and
function by the continued pressure and maceration. Still a cure is
worth attempting, for the practitioner has done little by the mere
temporary relief which the operation has afforded.
In order to prevent the refilling of the belly, two objects must be
accomplished, namely, the determination of this fluid to some other
part where it shall be regularly discharged, and the restoration of the
general health of the animal, and, with this, the proper balance
between the exhalent and absorbent vessels. It is therefore usual to
give a dose of physic immediately after the operation, that the fluid
which might otherwise begin again to fill in the belly may be carried
off by the discharge thus established ; the physic is repeated as frequently
as the strength of the animal will • permit. This is a way of
proceeding, however, not very favorable to the re-establishment of
health and strength, and therefore much greater reliance is placed
on a course of diiretic medicine, with which tonics can be com-
;