Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

864 CATTLE.
intestine should be gently and carefully pushed up through the ring
or opening, the testicles being somewhat drawn cut, in order to render
this more practicable. Continued and gentle pressure applied
on the sides of the tumor will more facilitate this than the applica-
tion of the greatest force. The intestine baying been returned, the
finger of an assistant is placed at the opening, and the operator proceeds
to cut into the scrotum as quickly as he can, and to denude
the testicle, to apply the ordinary clamps, and to divide the cord
below the clamps. The clamps will form a temporary and effectual
support ; and by the following day, when it is usual to remove
the clamps, a degree of inflammation and engorgement of the parts
will have been set up, that will either obliterate the ring, or so far
contract it, that it will
scend.
be impossible for the gut afterwards to de-
There is one circumstance to which the practitioner should most
carefully attend. The protruded intestine always carries with it a
portion of peritoneum—it is contained in a bag formed by the in-
vesting membrane of the bowels. The whole of this bag may not
have been returned when the intestine is pushed up : the operator
must ascertain this, and by no means open any part of the peritoneal
covering that may remain.
Castration will usually remove this hernia and all its unpleasant or
dangerous consequences, and the beast will be as valuable for grazing
and for working as if nothing had occurred.
In a few cases, however, the hernia will be strangulated. So
great a portion of intestine, or of faecal matter in that intestine, will
have descended, that the operator cannot return it through the abdominal
ring. Even the somewhat desperate expedient of introducing
the hand into the rectum; and endeavoring to find out the
portion of intestine connected with that which has descended, and
forcibly retract it, may fail : a different kind of operation must then
be attempted, and which a skillful veterinarian alone can perform.
A species of rupture, very difficult to be treated, has occurred to
cows in an advanced period of pregnancy. An excessive accumula-
tion of fluid has taken place in the womb, or calf-bed, and the tendinous
expansion of the muscles which support the lower part of the
belly has given way. The farmer says, that " the rim of the cow's
belly is ruptured." A portion of the womb escapes through the
opening, and descends into the groin, or seems to occupy the udder,
and even the head of a calf has been forced down into the groin.
There is one more species of rupture to which cattle are subject,
and the existence of which cannot always be ascertained during life,
namely, that of the diaphragm, or midriff. In distension of the
rumen there is always great pressure against the midriff. This is
increased when severe colicky pains come on, and especially when
improper means have been resorted to, such as strong stimulating