72 WOUND TREATMENT 



In operations upon the feet for disabling lamenesses, 

 there is nothing so important as the opposite leg and 

 foot, which must now bear the burden of two. While 

 the patient is still on the table, the shoeing of the oppo- 

 site foot should be scrutinized, and corrected if neces- 

 sary. The sound leg, becoming tired, the weak patient 

 will often lie down and refuse to rise to bear the weight 

 on the aching member. Such cases soon become bed- 

 ridden, and seldom recover. 



In fine, it might be truthfully said that no surgeon 

 of animals will have success with serious operations if 

 he wades into them with a reckless disregard for the 

 resistant powers of his patients. The surgeon of human 

 beings studies his patient for days. He puts him to bed, 

 diets him, purges him, stimulates him, examines his 

 urine, his blood pressure, his heart, and then finally de- 

 cides to operate. But we veterinarians often wade into 

 our patients without a forethought, and then wonder at 

 the mortality. 



The operations in which there is an especial need of 

 weighing carefully the vigor of the patient in order to 

 forestall disaster are more numerous than might at first 

 be supposed. The more common are: 



1. Radical operation against poll-evil. 



2. Radical operation against fistula of the withers. 



3. Ablation of scirrhous cords, botryomycomata, shoe boils; 



goiters, nasal tumors, eyeballs, and so on. 



4. Radical operations for large hernia-ventraloceles, oscheoceles, 



and exomphaloceles. 



5. Cryptorchidectomy. 



6. Operations upon infected tendon sheaths and articulations. 



7. Surgical treatment of large lacerations of the buttocks and 



shoulders. 



8. Surgical treatment of abdominal wounds with visceral injury. 



9. Amputations following serious accidents. 



A review of these procedures, and there are many 

 others, shows clearly that major operations of a serious 



