96 INFLAMMATION OF THE SHAPE. 



I N F L A INI M A TI N OF T HE SHAPE. 



The external parts are very much swollen, and pustules or boils 

 appear about them, that break and discharcre much matter; and there 

 is also a considerable discharge of glairy fluid from the vagina. 



This sometimes occurs after difficult calving, or from taking cold 

 when the calving has been easy and natural : it has occasionally fol- 

 lowed bulling, and it has been seen at other times, and arises from 

 causes that could not be ascertained. Every action of the animal 

 shows that she labours under extreme irritation, and suffers a great 

 deal. 



She should be bled and physicked. It will often be advisable to 

 give a second dose of the physic, after an interval of three days. The 

 shape should be w^ell fomented several times in the day with warm 

 water, until the swelling begins to diminish. A common goulard- 

 wash, consisting of one ounce of the extract of lead to a quart of 

 water, with the addition of an ounce of spirit of wine, will then be 

 serviceable. 



An unpleasant gleet will often remain for a considerable time after 

 the swelling has subsided and the ulcers have healed. An astrinsrent 

 injection will then be useful. The one that should be first tried is 

 composed of six ounces of bruised oak bark, boiled in two quarts of 

 water until it is reduced to three pints. If this should not succeed, a 

 solution of alum, in the proportion of a quarter of an ounce to a quart 

 of water, may be tried. A common injection syringe, of tolerably 

 large size, will be the best instrument for throwing up the injection. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



STONE IN THE URINARY PASSAGES, OR BLADDER. 



There Sv'^ems to be a greater disposition to the formation and reten- 

 tion of calculi, or stones, in the urinary passages of the ox, than of 

 the horse. The manner in which cattle gather their food, the half- 

 cutting, and half-tearing, by which the roots of a portion at least of 

 the herbage are taken into the mouth and swallowed, and the pro- 

 pensity wliich almost all cattle have to swallow earth, in order to 

 prevent the acid fermentation of the food in the paunch — these things 

 account for the more frequent collection of sand and gravel in the 

 bladder of cattle than of horses. 



This sand and gravel is the foundation of, or the preparation for, 

 the future formation of stone in the bladder; and when the stone 

 begins to form, it is far more likely to be detained, and to accumulate 

 in size, in the bladder of the ox, than that of the horse, because the 

 urethra is very much smaller and more curved in its course. 



