164 VETERINARY SURGICAL OPERATIONS 



allowed to regain- the standing posture before the dressings 

 are applied. When they have been already applied, as a 

 matter of protection as the operation is proceeding, their 

 removal and re-adjustment is commendable. The lapse of a 

 few minutes between the completion of the operation and 

 the application of the first permanent dressings is advisable, 

 because all of the haemorrhage will then have stopped and 

 no blood will saturate the bandage. It has been the writer's 

 practice, when performing the operation with table re- 

 straint, to first return the patient to the standing position 

 and then rinse the region well with liberal quantities of 

 mercuric chloride solution to rid it of all blood, dirt, hairs, 

 etc., that are certain to contaminate the parts more or less 

 during the surgical work. After this rinsing, a large pledget 

 of cotton, well soaked in the same solution, is bound to the 

 wounds with muslin bandages. 



. AFTER-CARE.— The horse just operated upon is 

 placed into a single stall and tied to prevent lying down for 

 at least five days, at which time union will have become firm 

 enough to resist the molestation caused by flexing the legs 

 in the act of lying and rising. At the end of the first twenty- 

 four hours the mercuric chloride pack applied at the comple- 

 tion of the operation is replaced by a potent antiseptic 

 powder (iodoform) held in place by cotton and bandages. 

 This may be renewed every day, but always without dis- 

 turbing the wound. Washing, wiping, or any form of cleans- 

 ing is prohibited because of the great danger of molesting 

 the agglutinating edges before stable tissue has formed be- 

 tween them. It is only when there is evidence of sepsis that 

 such treatment is advisable. At the end of six days the 

 stitches are removed, the dry dressing applied for several 

 days more and then discontinued. On the fourteenth day 

 the healing process is well advanced, in fact completed. 



To obtain the best possible results from digital neu- 

 rotomy for navicular disease the horse should not be imme- 

 diately returned to work, but instead should be given a pro- 

 tracted rest lasting at the very least one month. If kept in 

 the stable the shoes must be replaced and the feet kept 

 moist by occasional tub baths, swabs and clay or oil meal 

 packing. The soles should be pared thin, the toes shortened 

 moderately and the heel-calks slightly elevated. It is, how- 

 ever, preferable to turn the neurotomized horse into a large 

 paddock to pasture, there to remain for several months, and 

 when finally returned to work the occupation should not be 

 an arduous one. The subjects thus operated upon and 



