508 HORSE, SWINE AND POULTRY DISEASES 



sutures placed about an inch apart. The hog should be kept by 

 itself and the stitches removed in eight or ten days. (Ind. B. 100.) 



SPAYING. 



Spaying is performed for the same reason as castration, and, 

 while it was practiced quite generally twenty years ago, it is seldom 

 done now. The necessity for the operation has passed away. It is 

 an operation that is profitable where sows are to be kept until a year 

 or more of age. Under the present method of marketing at eight 

 and nine months it is more profitable to permit the sows to advance 

 to one or two months pregnancy rather than spay and lose a short 

 time in checked growth, and run the risk of a little loss. 



When it is decided to spay, the pigs are prepared for the oper- 

 ation as for castration. They should be three months old and 

 weigh from thirty to sixty pounds. The pig is caught and held by 

 two men, upon an inclined board, the head being lowest. The oper- 

 ator stands at the back and clips the hair from the flank over a 

 space about two inches wide and three inches long. An incision is 

 made about midway between the point of the hip and last rib and an 

 inch below the points of the lumbar vertebrae. The incision should be 

 just sufficiently large to admit the finger. The forefinger of the 

 left hand is introduced and follows the back. The ovaries will ba 

 found almost directly downward, suspended by a short ligament. 

 They will feel like a raspberry or blackberry and can be mistaken 

 for nothing else. If the ovary can not be found at once, pass the 

 finger backward toward the bladder and search for the uterus (pig 

 bed) and follow it forward to its termination at the ovary. Remove 

 the ovary by tearing it off with the finger or cutting it off with 

 dull scissors. The lower ovary may be removed through the same 

 opening. Close the outside wound with two stitches, using silk 

 thread or silk fishing line. 



The operation may be performed through the middle line of 

 the belly, the same as in spaying the bitch. The method is to hang 

 the pig up by a gambrel with a loop for each hock, make the in- 

 cision about two inches in front of the pubis and remove the ovaries 

 as already indicated. This opening is closed by two sets of stitches, 

 one in the deep muscles and a second in the skin. One of the ob- 

 jections to this method is the danger of small herniae. In either 

 method the part should be prepared by washing with carbolic acid 

 and the hand and instruments should be clean. The loss from 

 operating is slight. (Ind. B. 100.) 



PROLAPSE OP THE ANUS. 



Causes. Permanent protrusion of the mucous membrane lin- 

 ing the rectum through the anal opening is called prolapse of the 

 anus. The cause is violent straining from constipation, diarrhea, or 

 anything that will bring about a weakening of the spincter muscles 

 of the anus. Sometimes it is seen among breeding sows, due to their 

 eating cinders and pieces of wood, and the consequent constipated 

 condition of the bowels. 



Symptoms. In some cases only a few folds of the mucous 

 membrane appear behind the anus, in other forms a fair sized 



