TREATMENT OF CRURAL HERNIA. 
299 
• Treatment. Lafosse attempted taxis after casting the horse, but 
if the hernia be strangulated and taxis fail, he recommends operation. 
An incision is made through the sac large enough to enable Poupart s 
ligament to be sewn with the sartorius muscle after reduction of the 
hernia. 
In non-strangulated herniee the use of irritants, like cantharides oint¬ 
ment, has been frequently recommended. After operation the animal 
should be tied up for a week, and fourteen days later may be quietly 
exercised. 
Tidborn opened an incarcerated hernia in a foal, replaced the loop of 
small intestine, which had already become adherent, and sewed up the 
wound ; the animal, however, died. Lafond states having cured crural 
hernia in the she ass by using clams. In Germany the disease appears 
to be very rare. Whether the different food or the heavy work is the 
cause of its more frequent occurrence in France is uncertain. 
IX.—PERINEAL HERNIA. 
The posterior wall of the pelvis possesses in male animals only 
one dilatation—the excavatio recto-vesicalis; but in female animals 
there are two—the upper the excavatio recto-uterina, the under the 
excavatio vesico-uterina. Extension of one or other of these boundaries 
of the pelvis and entrance of abdominal viscera into the space so caused 
is termed perineal hernia. 
The disease is most frequently seen in dogs, less in the cow, ewe, and 
bitch, in which animal it usually consists of a dilatation of the excavatio 
vesico-uterina, which is more exposed to strain on account of its lower 
position. In male animals either the intestine or urinary bladder is 
found in the excavatio recto-vesicalis, in females the hernia consists of 
small intestine. Frick, in the case of a pregnant cow, saw a portion of 
the gravid uterus in the sac. 
Symptoms. As a rule only one side is affected. In dogs a swelling, 
varying from the size of a man’s fist to that of a child s head, and 
possessing the known characteristics of a hernia, occurs close to the loot 
of the tail and just over the ischial tuberosity. In ewes it may be as 
large as a goose’s egg, and appears alongside the vulva. In the cow 
a round swelling, sometimes as large as a man s head, arises close undei 
the vagina, and presses forward the labhe. The hernia can be 1 educed 
and the swelling dispersed by pressure, by raising the hind-legs, 01 by 
walking the animal down-liill; whilst it is increased by raising the 
fore-legs, or by any cause which increases intra-abdominal pressure. 
Incarceration very seldom occurs, though Siedamgrotzky noticed 
strangulation of the urinary bladder in a dog. 
