DISEASES AND TREATMENT OF CATTLE 423 



and with your knife scrape up and down on the cord until 

 it is scraped off. This prevents bleeding. Fill the holes full 

 of salty butter and let him go. 



The main thing after castrating bulls, bull calves, boars 

 and dogs is to keep them away from dampness. If they 

 swell, bathe with lukewarm water and soap and open up tht 

 cuts with salty butter on your finger. If it swells very much, 

 bathe with lukewarm water and salt three times a day, and 

 after bathing apply white lotion. Sometimes, a few weeks 

 after the cuts are healed, the bag swells and becomes very 

 sore and hot. In this case you may know there is matter 

 forming in the bag. Bathe well three times a day with luke- 

 warm water and after bathing apply white lotion and a hot 

 poultice of half linseed meal and half bran. Fasten the poul- 

 tice by means of strings over the back. This brings the fes- 

 tering to a head. Change the poultice every time you bathe 

 the bag. As soon as you find a soft spot in the bag, lance it 

 to let the matter out. Make a good sized hole, large enough 

 to run your finger up to clean it out. After this, treat by 

 bathing with lukewarm water and soap and applying the 

 white lotion twice a day. Keep the cuts open by putting 

 butter on your finger and running it up into the hole once a 

 day until it commences to heal. 



8. Rig or Original Bulls. 



A rig or original bull is one in which one or both of the 

 testicles never come down into the scrotum, or bag. These 

 kind of bulls cannot be castrated like horses, and after they 

 get a little age become a perfect nuisance. 



Advice, — When you go to castrate a calf and find that 

 only one or neither testicles are down, fatten and get rid of 

 it, for it very rarely comes down afterwards. It will save 

 you a lot of trouble if you get rid of it while young. 



9. Ringing a Bull. 



Secure the animal by throwing him, or having him in a 

 solid, narrow stall. Take a piece of sharp-pointed, clean, 

 hard wood, or a sharp piece of bright steel large enough to 

 make a hole for the ring. Pierce the hole through in the soft 

 part of the nose, just in front of the hard cartilage that sep- 

 arates the nostrils. After the hole is through, open and oil 

 the ring, slip ft through, close it and put in the screw. After 

 the ring is in turn it every day until the wound is healed. 

 These rings can be obtained at any hardware store 



