190 The Care of Animals 



difficulty of making the stitches hold. The bitch is 

 confined by tying the mouth tightly with a strip of 

 cloth or string, and an anesthetic ximy be given. Ether 

 should be used, as chloroform, unless carefully given, 

 may be fatal to dogs. The bitch is placed on her back 

 on a table and held by two assistants, one taking the 

 fore and the other taking the hind legs. The hair is 

 clipped off, antiseptics used, and an incision about 

 two inches long made through the skin and muscles 

 on the median line about the center of the belly. 

 After cutting through the muscles, a thin, tough 

 membrane (the peritoneum) is found, which can be cut 

 slightly with a knife and then torn with the fingers, 

 so that there will be no danger of cutting the 

 intestines. The right index finger is inserted into the 

 abdominal cavity and the fallopian tubes found which 

 lead from the uterus to the ovaries. The tubes run 

 well forward. Care must be taken not to break 

 them, as it is extremely difficult to find an ovary when 

 it is not attached to its tube. The ovary is carefully 

 torn from the fibrous tissue that holds it in place, 

 then it is torn from the tube by the thumb nail. 

 The other ovary is removed in the same way. 



There is no need to remove the uterus or tubes 

 unless the animal is pregnant. In normal cases it is 

 not necessary to ligate anything. After i^moving the 

 ovaries, the tubes and intestines that may have es- 

 caped are replaced in the cavity and two stitches taken 

 through the skin and muscles to close the wound. 

 Following the operation, the dog should be left to 

 herself. Often there is nausea and vomiting following 



