254 CASTRATION, 



CASTRATION. 



The period at which this operation may be best performed depends much on the 

 breed and form of the colt, and the purpose for which he is destined. For the com- 

 mon agricultural horse the age of four or five months will be the most proper time, 

 or, at least before he is weaned. Few horses are lost when cut at that age. Care, 

 however, should be taken that the weather is not too hot, nor the flies too numerous. 

 We enter our decided protest, however, against the recommendation of valuable but 

 incautious agricultural writers, that "•colts should be cut in the months of June or 

 July, when Hies pester the horses, and cause them to be continually moving about, 

 and thereby prevent swelling." One moment's reflection will convince the reader 

 that nothing can be more likely to produce inflammation, and consequent swelling 

 and danger, than the torture of the flies hovering round and stinging the sore part. 



If the horse is designed either for the carriage or for heavy draught, the farmer 

 should not think of castrating him until he is at least a twelve-month old ; and, even 

 then, the colt should be carefully examined. If he is thin and spare about the neck and 

 shoulders, and low in the withers, he will materially improve by remaining uncut 

 another six months; but if his fore-quarters are fairly developed at the age of a 

 tweive-month, the operation should not be delayed, lest he become heavy and gross 

 bef(.re, and perhaps has begun too decidedly to have a will of his own. No specific 

 age, then, can be fixed; but the castration should be performed rather late 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 pru- 

 dent to bleed and to physic one of more advanced age. In the majority of cases, no 

 after-treatment will be "necessary, except that the animal should be sheltered from 

 intense heat, and more particularly from wet. In temperate weather he will do much 

 better running in the field than nursed in a close and hot stable. The moderate exer- 

 cise that he will take in grazing will be preferable to perfect inaction. A large and 

 well-ventilated box, however, may be permitted. 



The manner in which tlie operation is performed will be properly left to the vete- 

 rinary surgeon. The haste, carelessness, and brutality of the common gelder should 

 no longer be permitted ; but the veterinary surgeon should be able and willing to 

 discharg-e every portion of his duty. The old method of opening the scrotum on 

 either side, and cutting off the testicles, and preventing hemorrhage by a temporary' 

 compression of the vessels while they are seared with a hot iron, must not, perhaps, 

 be abandoned ; but there is no necessity for that extra pain, and that appearance, at 

 least, of brutality, which occur when the spermatic cord (the blood-vessels and the 

 nerve) is as tightly compressed between two pieces of wood as in a powerful vice, 

 and left there until either the testicle drops off, or is removed on the following day by 

 the operator. 



To the practice of some farmers, of twitchinu; their colts at an early period, some- 

 times even so early as a month, there is stronger objection. When the operation of 

 twitching is performed, a small cord is drawn as tightly as possible round the bag, 

 between'the testicle and the belly. The circulation is thus stopped, and, in a few- 

 days, the testicles and the bacr drop off; but not until the aninuil has sadly suffered. 

 [t is occasionally necessary to tighten the cord on the second or third day, and inflam- 

 mation and death have frequently ensued. 



Another mode of castration has been lately introduced which bids fair to supersede 

 every other: it is called the operation by Torsion. An incision is made into the 

 scrotum as in the other modes of operation, and the van difircns is exposed and 

 divided. The artery is then seized by a pair of forceps contrived for the purpose, and 

 twisted six or seven times round. It retracts as soon as the hold on it is qTiitied, the 

 coils are not untwisted, and all bleeding has ceased. The testicle is removed, and 

 there is no sloug;hing or danger. The most painful part of the operation — the applica- 

 tion of the firing-iron or the clams — is avoided, and the wound readily heals. 



