96 HEALTH AND DISEASE 



Simple engorgement may be relieved by milking with the finger and 

 thumb, an operation requiring some little practice to be efficiently per- 

 formed, and not necessarily possessed by a good cow-milker. No great 

 quantity is obtainable at one time; the operator must be content to repeat 

 the performance several times during each day if much benefit is to be 

 derived. He should depend, too, upon a soothing manner and gentle 

 manipulation rather than upon severe methods of restraint calculated to 

 annoy the patient, whose will is capable of more or less control of the 

 milk to be yielded. 



Inunction of the udder with lard or vaseline affords relief by enabling 

 the skin to stretch. In some cases it is necessary to employ a milk-syphon, 

 as blocking of the teat or great tenderness at the base may render hand 



milking impossible. The 

 instrument must be intro- 

 duced with much care, oil- 



Fig. 236.- Teat-Syphon the P illfc &St and 



ploying only the gentlest 



means of pushing it up into the space existing between the glandular struc- 

 ture and the substance of the teat. The aperture of the teat being provided 

 with a delicate sphincter muscle, its resistance must be overcome gradually, 

 or its capacity to contract on subsequent occasions may be impaired, or 

 even destroyed, thus allowing the milk to escape from the gland as fast as 

 it is secreted. The ring teat-syphon (fig. 236) can be retained in position, 

 where desirable, by tapes attached to the rings and passed over the loins 

 of the patient, but it is extremely liable to come out, and has in some 

 instances caused injury when the animal has lain down. 



Where abscess commences to form in the gland it is very difficult to 

 arrest the formation of matter, but it may be controlled in a measure by 

 the administration of aperients and febrifuges, and the employment of mild 

 stimulating embrocations to the udder. If the swelling becomes large, 

 tense, and painful, with a disposition to bulge or "point" in one direction, 

 it will be well to encourage the process by poulticing. Very great relief is 

 afforded by opening the abscess with a lancet, but the operation should 

 not be prematurely performed. When pus has been evacuated the abscess 

 may be syringed out with an antiseptic lotion from time to time. The 

 animal must be well sustained with nutritive food, but this should not 

 be of a milk-making description in any trouble connected with the udder, 

 the first consideration being to restrain the functional activity of the 

 gland, allay inflammatory action, and prevent its sequelae. 



Gangrene or death of the mammae must be treated with a view to 

 conserving the life of the mare ; since the affected organ or a large portion 



