CASTRATION. llf 



in the spring, or early in the autumn, when the air Is temperate 

 and particularly when the weather is dry. 



No preparation is necessary for the sucking colt, but it 

 may be prudent to physic one of more advanced age. In 

 the majority of cases, no after treatment will be necessary, ex- 

 cept that the animal should be sheltered from intense heat, and 

 more particularly from the wet. In temperate weather he 

 will do much better running in the field than nursed in a close 

 and hot stable. The moderate exercise which he will necessa- 

 rily take in grazing, will be preferable to entire inaction. 



The old method of opening the scrotum, or testicle bag, on 

 each side, and cutting off the testicles, preventing bleeding by 

 a temporary compression of the vessel, while they are seared 

 with a hot iron, must not, perhaps, be abandoned ; but there is 

 no necessity for that extra pain, when the spermatic cord (the 

 blood-vessels and the nerve,) is compressed between two pieces 

 of wood as tightly as in a vice, and there left until the following 

 day, when it may be removed with a knife. 



The practice of some farmers of cording, or twitching their 

 colts at an early period exposes the animal to much unneces- 

 sary pain, and is attended with no slight danger. 



Another method of castration is by torsion. An incision is 

 made into the scrotum, and the vas deferens is exposed and 

 divided. The artery is then seized by a pair of forceps con- 

 trived for the purpose, and twisted six or seven times round. 

 It retracts without untwisting the coils, and bleeding ceases. 

 The testicle is removed, and there is no sloughing or danger. 

 The most painful part of the operation — the operation of the 

 firing-iron, or the claws — is avoided, and the wound readily 

 heals. It is to be remarked, in this connection, that the use 



