264 OPERATIVE TECHNIQUE. 



Beginners are advised to perform one or two experimental operations 

 in order to gain some experience, otherwise they may be unable to find 

 the ovaries. The extreme dexterity which can be attained, however, is 

 shown by the professional castrator. Bowman, for a wager, castrated 

 100 sows in 160 minutes. 



Castration from the white line is less frequently performed, though 

 for unpractised operators it is easier than the former. The animal is 

 hung up by its hind legs, or placed on its back on a table, and a bent 

 director, the shape of a ver}' elongated S, and about ten inches long, is 

 passed along the upper wall of the vagina and uterus, so as to avoid 

 the meatus urinarius. The director is pressed against the lower 

 abdominal wall, about two inches in front of the anterior edge of the 

 OS pubis. A special spade-shaped knife is then passed through the 

 abdominal wall, either towards the outside of the last left teat, or 

 close to the linea alba. With the help of a blunt hook, the uterus is 

 then found from this point, a comparatively easy task, inasmuch as the 

 organ can be pressed towards the opening by means of the director 

 previously introduced. With the uterus as a guide, one of the horns 

 is discovered and the ovary removed ; the second is operated on in a 

 similar fashion. The skin wound is closed with button sutures, and 

 usually heals by primary intention in five to six days. After-treatment 

 is as above described. 



The most important sequelae to be dreaded are fatal bleeding and 

 peritonitis. Death from bleeding seldom results after the first- twenty- 

 four hours, but peritonitis may prove fatal within a period of from 

 three to thirty-six days. Such results are favoured by the custom 

 observed in some places of driving swine soon after castration. Fatal 

 bleeding is best prevented by nipping or twisting off the ovary ; 

 peritonitis b}' observing antisepsis, as in all operations on the peritoneal 

 ca\ ity. 



5. Castration of bitches is seldom performed, and onh- for the 

 purpose of avoiding inconvenience caused by the animal coming on 

 heat. When young, and not too fat, these animals appear to bear 

 operation well. The manipulation is more difficult than in swine, and 

 can only be mastered by considerable practice, especially when the 

 operation is performed from the Hank, as in swine. In the bitch, the 

 ovaries lie much further forward, near the kidneys ; they are small and 

 enveloped in fat ; the ovarian ligament is short. 



The bitch may be secured like the sow, or may be laid on its side 

 on a table. The incision is made about ij inches from the external 

 angle of the ilium, and the same distance from the transverse processes 



