72 



OVARIOTOMY OF TROUBLESOME MARES. 



boys to use, because he will thus be enabled to part with, all 

 his geldings when opportunities offer. 



Those under the age of two years, in which the. vagina is 

 too small to allow of passage of the hand, are operated upon 

 through the flank (on the left side, between the last ribs and 

 the angle of the haunch) or through the median line (midway 

 between the umbilicus and mammary gland). 



The abdominal incision is made just so large that it will 

 admit the hand, the mare being thrown and secured with ropes, 

 and, after removal of the ovaries, allowed to return to the prairie. 

 No attempt at after-dressing is made on account of the wildness 



Fig. 27. 



Diagram of "chute " (with sides about 6 feet high), into which the mare is driven and 



placed for operation. Her head passes through the space between A and G. 



G. Gate, about 8 feet high and 2 feet 6 inches wide. 



B. Set of rails to keep the animal wedged tightly in position and to 



prevent operator from being kicked. 



of the patients, and it is not surprising that a certain proportion 

 of deaths occur from peritonitis or protrusion of the bowels. 



With the older and more roomy mares the vaginal method 

 is practised, and, although no chloroform is used and the anti- 

 septic precautions taken do not come up to modern ideas, the 

 percentage of losses is very small. 



The half-wild animals are driven into a wedge-shaped stockade, 

 6 feet high, termed a " chute " (see Fig. 27), and as soon as one 

 has arrived at the farther extremity (which is only about 

 2 feet 6 inches in width), bars are slipped, in behind the 



