TYMPANITES 41 



tressed that she opens her mouth in the attempt to 

 breathe. As long as she keeps her mouth closed, 

 breathing through the nose, we find that we are able 

 to give relief by medicinal means alone. 



In those cases in which the cow breathes only spar- 

 ingly, with mouth agape and tongue protruding, no 

 time should be lost in performing the tapping opera- 

 tion. A large cattle trocar should always be used, 

 forcing it into the distended rumen slightly below the 

 middle of the most prominent point in the triangle 

 formed by the last rib, lumbar vertebra and external 

 angle of the ilium, causing the instrument to take 

 the direction of "inward, downward, and slightly for- 

 ward. " 



Ordinarily no time is wasted in cleaning up the 

 seat of operation. 



The veterinarian's trocar should be in a surgically 

 clean condition always, so that he may not be required 

 to choose between two alternatives: one, that of en- 

 dangering the life of the cow by postponing the 

 operation until he can sterilize his trocar; the other, 

 that of jeopardizing the ultimate smooth result of the 

 operation by taking a chance on infection resulting 

 from tapping the animal with a dirty trocar. 



In passing or entering the trocar the veterinarian 

 should assume such a position that he may avoid being 

 kicked by the cow. Many cows will make a fairly 

 good attempt at reaching the doctor with a hind foot 

 when the trocar is forced in, although they are to 

 all appearances near collapse from suffocation. This 

 point is one of the reasons that we say the cow 

 evidently does not suffer greatly from pain in this con- 

 dition. "Were the animal's distressed condition the re- 

 sult of extrenje pain, the entrance of the trocar would 

 probably not be noticed. 



