DEHORNING, SPAYING, AND CASTRATING CATTLE 39I 



individual animal, but it also extends to other animals 

 in the same herd. In large herds, the aggregate of loss 

 from this source would be very considerable in the ab- 

 sence of measures to prevent it. 



When heifers are grown for the production of meat, 

 they should be spayed in the one-year or in the two-year 

 form. As a rule, the earlier that such an operation can 

 be safely performed, the more quickly will the animal 

 recover therefrom. Owing to the physical difficulties to 

 be overcome, heifers are not spayed at so early an age as 

 males. The necessity for spaying cannot be said to exist 

 before the animals are capable of breeding, hence heifers 

 are seldom spayed under the age of six months, when 

 spayed through an opening made in the flank. But when 

 spayed through an opening made through the belly, they 

 may be spayed more easily between the ages of three 

 and six months than at a later age. Breeding cows, of 

 course, cannot be spayed until the time comes when it 

 is decided not to breed them again. 



While spaying can be done at almost any season of 

 the year, it is true, nevertheless, that some seasons are 

 less favorable than others for doing it. The least favor- 

 able season is when flies are abundant and the most 

 favorable, all things considered, as in the case of de- 

 horning, is the spring. (See page 387.) Extremely 

 cold weather brings some hazard to animals spayed at 

 such a time, unless they are carefully and warmly 

 housed. 



Females of the bovine species, and, indeed, those of 

 any species, should not be spayed when in a feeble con- 

 dition, when ill, or when pregnant. When ill or ill con- 

 ditioned, they have less power to resist the shock to the 

 system which spaying brings with it; and if pregnant, 

 the complications that would follow are liable, in some 

 degree, to prove fatal. Wounds inflicted on animals 

 heal most quickly when the energies of the system are 

 in the highest condition of vigor; for then the energies 



