294 DISEASES OP CATTLE. 



inserted into the rumen. Before any of the contents are removed 

 from that organ a linen cloth should be placed from the outer wound 

 into the rumen in order to prevent any of the ingesta from getting 

 into the abdominal cavity. After removing a portion of the contents 

 of the rumen some practitioners introduce such medicine as may be 

 indicated before closing the wound. Clean the wound and close the 

 opening in the rumen with uninterrupted (PI. XXVIII, fig. 8) car- 

 bolized catgut sutures. Next close the external wound, consisting of 

 the integument, muscle, and peritoneum, with stout, interrupted (PI. 

 XXVIII, fig. 6) metallic sutures. No food should be given for several 

 hours after the operation, and then gruels only. (See "Distention of 

 rumen with food," p. 27.) 



TREATMENT OF ABSCESSES. 



An abscess may be detected, if situated externally, by heat, pain, 

 redness, and swelling in the early stages, and, if further developed, 

 by the fluctuation which will be present. "When any of these symp- 

 toms are absent, the suppuration should be encouraged by the means 

 of hot fomentations and poultices. Care must be taken that the 

 abscess is not opened too soon, or it may to some extent cause it to 

 scatter and the escape of pus will be lessened. The time to open 

 an abscess is just before it is ready to break, and should be done with 

 a sharp lance, a crucial incision sometimes being necessary. The 

 cavity should be syringed out with an antiseptic solution. Care 

 should be taken not to allow the wound to close too rapidly, and 

 to prevent this a tent of lint or oakum should be introduced. 



WOUNDS. 



It is probably not going too far to say that as a general rule wounds 

 of the bovine species, unless sufficiently serious to endanger the ani- 

 mal's life, are left uncared for. The poor suffering creatures are too 

 often, even in fly time, left to endure untold torture from wounds not 

 at first of much importance, but which, from the constant irritation 

 caused by flies, dirt, etc., often develop into hideous, unhealthy 

 sores, which can not fail, even when they do heal, to leave extensive 

 and lasting blemishes as records of the owner's thriftlessness and 

 inhumanity. 



The comparatively low market value of all but the full-blood and 

 pedigreed animal precludes an owner (save in a few exceptional cases, 

 inspired by a higher than ordinary sense of humanity) from entertain- 

 ing professional assistance. It is more than doubtful whether the suf- 

 fering creature does not go from bad to worse when its case is made 

 over to the tender mercies of the ignorant local cowleech, to whom 

 "wolf in the tail" is a terrifying living presence and " hollow horn " a 

 solid fact, and whose sole claim to erudition in such matters consists 



