Acute Mammitis 963 



all no ver}'- useful purpose has been served, except possibly that 

 the danger to the life of the animal has been lessened. The 

 affected gland is destroyed, and consequently useless. Amputa- 

 tion would generally be preferable. 



Whenever gangrene threatens the life of the animal ; when the 

 udder is the seat of enormous abscesses which must eventually 

 destroy the integrity of the gland and cause prolonged disease 

 and loss of condition ; when tumors of large size or chronic in. 

 flammatory processes with great enlargement and pendulousness 

 of the udder exist ; or when the gland is the seat of actino- 

 mycosis or botryomycosis, the udder should be amputated. It is 

 impractible to amputate one of the quarters of the cow, since the 

 two quarters of one half are too intimately blended for separation. 



The cow is to be cast, and preferably secured in lateral re- 

 cumbency. Vennerholm recommends dorsal recumbency, but 

 this is constantly objectionable in ruminants because such posi- 

 tion tends to induce tympany, and consequently should be avoided 

 as far as practicable. The patient should be secured by means 

 of two stout ropes, one of which is to be attached to the anterior, 

 and the other to the posterior feet. The patient is then to be 

 extended by attaching each rope to a post or other secure fasten- 

 ing, sufficiently far apart to allow the animal to be fully stretched 

 between the two points. 



The question of anaesthesia is one upon which practitioners 

 are not agreed. Vennerholm recommends complete general an- 

 aesthesia. In our experience general anaesthesia in the ruminant 

 is dangerous, because of the probability of food being regurgitated ' 

 from the rumen and inhaled, to cause foreign bod}' pneumonia. 



In one case of amputation of the udder in the cow, where the 

 entire gland was removed, as it was completely gangrenous, the 

 cow was in a comatose condition and required no anaesthetic, 

 because, so far as could be seen, no sense of pain was induced 

 in the animal during the entire operation. Neither is the opera- 

 tion a very painful one in most cases, so far as can be judged by 

 the character of the tissues involved. The principal pain is in- 

 duced by the cutaneous incisions, and the ligation of the chief 

 mass of inguinal vessels. The operator may consequently choose 

 between general anaesthesia and local anaesthesia to the skin, 

 followed by local anaesthesia to the vessels passing through the 

 inguinal canal. 



