Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

426 CATTLE.
of the lung. The means to be adopted when no other symptoms- of
disease are observed, are : dulcamara, in cough by cold ; bryonia (in
repeated doses,) in inveterate cough ; Belladonna and drosera, in
chronic cough ; hyoscyamus when the attacks are very frequent
squilla, in cough which comes on after fatigue, and which interferes
with the respiration ; Ohamomilla, in dry cough, with diarrhoea
Pulsatilla, in frequent attacks of dry cough, with loss of appetite
spiritus sulphuratis in very obstinate cough. When the cough is the
symptom of another disease, it yields
the latter.
to the treatment required by
CASTRATION.
The period pretty generally selected 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 animals 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 whipcord was tied
as tightly as possible round 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 were cut offxin 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 on
one side of it, near the bottom, of sufficient depth to penetrate through
the inner covering of the testicle, and long enough 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 round 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 opera-
tion is complete. The length of the cord should be so contrived that
it shall immediately retract into the scrotum, but not higher, while
the ends of the string hang out through the wounds. In the course
of about a week the strings will usually drop off, and the wounds
will speedily heal. It will be rarely that any application to the
scrotum will be necessary, except fomentation of it, if much swelling
should ensue.
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