284 CATTLE 



found on the left of the trachea, and between the carotid and the 

 jug-ular. The artery will be detected by its puli^ation, and the vein 

 by its turgescence. The only muscle that can be in danger is the 

 sterno-maxillaris, and that may, in a very great majority of cases, be 

 avoided, or, if it be wounded, no ^reat mischief will ensue. 



The animal should be cast, (at least this is the safest way, as it 

 regards both the operator and the patient.) It should be thrown on 

 the right side, and the head should be a little stretched out, but 

 lying as flat as the horns will permit. The place of obstruction will 

 be seen at once. An incision is by some persons made immediately 

 into the gullet, sufficiently long for the extraction of the root. The 

 safer way, however, is for the cellular substance to be a littb dissected 

 away before the gullet is opened, when, if the incision be long enough, 

 the incarcerated body will readily escape. The edges of the oesopha- 

 gus should then be brought together, and confined by two or three 

 stitches ; the skin should also have the same number passed through 

 it, the ends of the stitches of the gullet having been brought throus^h 

 the external wound. The beast should have nothing but gruel for 

 two or three days ; and, after that, gruel and mashes for a little while 

 longer. In a fortnight or three weeks the wound will generally be 

 healed, and scarcely a trace of the incision will be visible. 



If the obstruction be not observed, or the piactitioner not called in 

 until the potato or parsnip has passed into that portion of the gullet 

 which is within the thorax, the chances of saving the animal are 

 materially diminished. The common probang should first be tried, 

 and, that failing, the corkscrew should be resorted to, either to draw 

 the body out, or so to pierce it and break it down, that it may be 

 forced onward either by the stilett or the knob. The practitioner 

 should, if necessary, use all the force he can ; for, if the obstruction 

 be not overcome, the animal will assuredly perish. 



It has often been observed, and with much truth, that cow^s, in 

 whose gullet this obstiuction has once taken place, are subject to it 

 afterwards. Either they had a habit of voiacious feeding, or the 

 muscles are weakened by tliis spasmodic action, and not able to con- 

 tract upon the food with sufficient force for the ordinary purposes of 

 deglutition. It will therefoie generally be prudent to part with the 

 cow that has once suffei-ed from an accident of this kind. 



strictui;e of the (esophagus. 



This rarely occurs in cattle. The writer of this treatise has met 

 with only one marked case of it. The food occasionally accumulated 

 in the upper part of the gullet until there was a swelhng eight or ten 

 inch-^s in length, terminating in an evident contraction of the oesopha- 

 gus. He passed a probang through the stricture, as large as, without 

 too great violence, he could manage, and confined it there for an hour. 



