34 VETERINARY STJRGICAL OPERATIONS 



of nerves, tendons, or muscles; and finally to accomplish a 

 number of objects too miscellaneous to classify. The resec- 

 tion of abnormal structures has for its object the elimination 

 of harmful elements from the body. Examples of the former 

 are found in trephining for the repulsion of teeth, the removal 

 of a part of one or two tracheal rings for tracheal intuba- 

 tion, and the various neurotomies. An example of the latter 

 is found in the. resection of the ligamentum nuchae for the 

 cure of poll evil. 



In veterinary operations, ablations, like resections, are 

 often directed alike toward normal and abnormal structures; 

 in fact, . the most important ablations of veterinary sur- 

 gery,— castration and spaying, — are performed with rare 

 exceptions, upon strictly normal organs. Growths, of in- 

 flammatory as well as non-inflammatory origin, (true 

 tumors) however, furnish the most indications for this surgi- 

 cal process. These defects incapacitate the work-horse 

 when located at points touched with the harness, and when 

 compatible with health and utility in any of the domestic 

 species they often constitute ■ damaging blemishes; some- 

 times they are extirpated, because of a justifiable suspicion 

 of malignancy, before they have generalized or have become 

 locally inoperable. The thyroid body is ablated in goiter, 

 and the eye ball in cancer. Actinomycotic and botryomy- 

 cotic growths also furnish innumerable indications. 



Amputations are relatively less important in veterinary 

 surgery. The saving of life by amputating a diseased or 

 seriously injured limb is not a mission of veterinary surgery, 

 except here and there, in a dog or cat whose leg has been 

 crushed, and occasionally in a pregnant mare or cow carry- 

 ing a precious foetus as an object of salvage. The large 

 animals, however, seldom ever survive the loss of a limb, and 

 furthermore they are useless without all four, while the small 

 pet animals, being looked upon as objects of pity when a leg 

 is lost, are usually painlessly killed. Hence the small import- 

 ance of limb amputations in domestic animals. 



The tail of the horse, ox or dog is occasionally amputated 

 on account of disease or serious injury. The tail of the horse, 

 sometimes accidentally strangulated by tying its hairs too 

 tightly around the stump, especially when tied up too long 

 in shipping, when fired, blistered, etc., may then require am- 

 putation above the necrotic line. 



The tail of the ox, from treads of neighboring animals, 

 contusions from switching at flies or from wounds sustained 

 in various ways, sometimes becomes the seat of a gangrene 



