DISEASES OF THE OX AND SHEEP. 627 



both above and below the seat of a fracture, and gently twist 

 the two parts in opposite directions, a grating sound may be 

 heard, and a grating will be felt. 



In regard to the management of fractures occurring in beasts, 

 it may first be said that it is by no means always wise to treat 

 them. The chief difficulty arises from the fact that in the 

 case of lower animals generally, and especially in that of oxen, 

 it is a matter of considerable difficulty to keep the animal in 

 one position. That useful contrivance known as slinging, so 

 valuable in the case of horses, is not easily applicable to oxen, 

 whose complex digestive apparatus is so liable to be compressed 

 by slinging, and therefore greatly interfered with in regard to 

 its activity. 



Young oxen which are accustomed to fighting are very likely 

 to break their horns. The bleeding hence arising may be pro- 

 fuse, and must be stopped by pressure or by the actual cautery. 

 The orifice into the frontal sinuses should be covered with a 

 tarred cloth, bound not closely but firmly. Mr. John Henry 

 Steel, F.B.C.V.S., an eminent authority, states that experience 

 among Indian cattle shows that spiral fracture of the humerus 

 and fracture of the neck of the femur are frequent in India. 

 Fractures in young animals unite more readily than in the 

 adult. 



Suppose we have to deal with a limb broken below the knee 

 or hock. We shall require two gutta-percha splints, about 

 two-and-a-half inches wide, and long enough to reach from the 

 knee or hock, as the case may be, to the coronets. These 

 splints must first be softened by being placed in warm water. 

 Then the two ends of the bone should be brought into exact 

 contact, the splints should be moulded to the limb with the 

 hand, and then a bandage should be carefully and rather tightly 

 rolled round and round the splints so as to keep them fixed in 

 their position. Should they, after all, become displaced, they 

 must be readjusted. 



Starch bandages also are very useful, starch being nearly 

 always ready to hand during an emergency. The starch 

 should be mixed with a sufficiency of warm water so as to be 

 thick, and the bandage, which must be about half-a-foot broad 

 and about four yards in length, should then be well soaked in 

 it. As the bandage is being applied, an assistant should be at 



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