FACTS OF GENERAL INTEREST 127 



year ; in fact, it commonly is in the case of adult animals 

 which have been kept for stud though subsequently 

 desired by their owners to be utilised for work. It is a 

 comparatively simple operation and can be performed 

 either in a standing or recumbent attitude. If the former, 

 the colts must be housed the night before and, for prefer- 

 ence, kept without any food until they are operated on 

 the following morning. When operated on in the recum- 

 bent posture, a straw bed should be put down or else 

 a piece of soft ground provided for " throwing " the colt. 

 As a rule, the operation only occupies a few minutes and 

 the fee ranges from 7s. 6d. to a guinea or 2 guineas, 

 according to circumstances. In the case of rigs, the fee 

 for the operation varies from 5 to 10 guineas. Castration 

 is a safe operation and ninety-five per cent of colts never 

 show any ill effects from it, but the remaining five per 

 cent may and sometimes do. 



If a colt is ruptured, a special operation is needed, but 

 this should be discovered before the animal is operated 

 upon, and then dealt with according to surgical principles. 

 Sometimes infection occurs and the part begins to swell 

 extensively and suppurate. Under these circumstances it 

 is necessary to keep the wound open so as to give free 

 exit to the discharge. Normally a certain amount of 

 sweUing is usual, and to dispel this many operators 

 believe in turning their colts out to graze immediately 

 after they have been operated upon . Another unforeseen 

 accident is prolonged haemorrhage, or bleeding from the 

 cord, due to the artery not having been properly sealed, or 

 it may be that the haemorrhage is brought on through 

 the animal itself after the operation. There is no need 

 for any alarm, as the loss of three or four quarts of blood 

 from a horse is of very little importance. Anything 

 beyond this demands professional skill and can always 

 be dealt with. Sometimes cold irrigation will stop it, 

 but the owner should never interfere with the wound, as 

 he may quite easily, though unwittingly, infect it 



