Special Report on Diseases of the Horse Part 19

Teeth, hair, and other indications of a second fetus have likewise been found in the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e or s.c.r.o.t.u.m.

DEGENERATION OF THE t.e.s.t.i.c.l.eS.

The t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es may become the seat of fibrous, calcareous, fatty, cartilaginous, or cystic degeneration, for all which the appropriate treatment is castration. They also become the seat of cancer, glanders, or tuberculosis, and castration is requisite, though with less hope of arresting the disease. Finally, they may become infested with cystic tapeworms or the agamic stage of a strongyle (_Strongylus edentatus_).

WARTS ON THE p.e.n.i.s.

These are best removed by twisting them off, using the thumb and forefinger. They may also be cut off with scissors and the roots cauterized with nitrate of silver.

DEGENERATION OF p.e.n.i.s (PAPILLOMA, OR EPITHELIOMA).

The p.e.n.i.s of the horse is subject to great cauliflower-like growths on its free end, which extend back into the substance of the organ, obstruct the pa.s.sage of urine, and cause very fetid discharges. The only resort is to cut them off, together with whatever portion of the p.e.n.i.s has become diseased and indurated. The operation, which should be performed by a veterinary surgeon, consists in cutting through the organ from its upper to its lower aspect, twisting or tying the two dorsal arteries, and leaving the urethra longer by half an inch to 1 inch than the adjacent structures.

EXTRAVASATION OF BLOOD IN THE p.e.n.i.s.

As the result of kicks, blows, or of forcible striking of the p.e.n.i.s on the thighs of the mare which it has failed to enter, the p.e.n.i.s may become the seat of effusion of blood from one or more ruptured blood vessels. This gives rise to a more or less extensive swelling on one or more sides, followed by some heat and inflammation, and on recovery a serious curving of the organ. The treatment in the early stages may be the application of lotions, of alum, or other astringents, to limit the effusion and favor absorption. The p.e.n.i.s should be suspended in a sling.

PARALYSIS OF THE p.e.n.i.s.

This results from blows and other injuries, and also in some cases from too frequent and exhausting service. The p.e.n.i.s hangs from the sheath, flaccid, pendulous, and often cold. The pa.s.sage of urine occurs with lessened force, and especially without the final jets. In cases of local injury the inflammation should first be subdued by astringent and emollient lotions, and in all cases the system should be invigorated by nouris.h.i.+ng diet, while 30-grain doses of nux vomica are given twice a day. Finally, a weak current of electricity sent through the p.e.n.i.s from just beneath the a.n.u.s to the free portion of the p.e.n.i.s, continued for 10 or 15 minutes and repeated daily, may prove successful.

SELF-ABUSE, OR MASTURBATION.

Some stallions acquire this vicious habit, stimulating the s.e.xual instinct to the discharge of s.e.m.e.n by rubbing the p.e.n.i.s against the belly or between the fore limbs. The only remedy is a mechanical one, the fixing of a net under the p.e.n.i.s in such fas.h.i.+on as to prevent the extension of the p.e.n.i.s or so p.r.i.c.k the organ as to compel the animal to desist through pain.

DOURINE.

This disease is discussed in the chapter on "Infectious Diseases."

CASTRATION.

CASTRATION OF STALLIONS.

This is usually done at 1 year old, but may be accomplished at a few weeks old at the expense of an imperfect development of the fore parts.

The simplicity and safety of the operation are greatest in the young.

The delay till 2, 3, or 4 years old will secure a better development and carriage of the fore parts. The essential part of castration is the safe removal or destruction of the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e and the arrest or prevention of bleeding from the spermatic artery round in the anterior part of the cord. Into the many methods of accomplis.h.i.+ng this limited s.p.a.ce forbids us to enter here, so that only the method most commonly adopted, castration by clamps, will be noticed. The animal having been thrown on his left side, and the right hind foot drawn up on the shoulder, the exposed s.c.r.o.t.u.m, p.e.n.i.s, and sheath are washed with soap and water, any concretion of seb.u.m being carefully removed from the bilocular cavity in the end of the p.e.n.i.s. The left spermatic cord, just above the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e, is now seized in the left hand, so as to render the skin tense over the stone, and the right hand, armed with the knife, makes an incision from before backward, about three-fourths of an inch from and parallel to the median line between the thighs, deep enough to expose the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e and long enough to allow that organ to start out through the skin. At the moment of making this incision the left hand must grasp the cord very firmly, otherwise the sudden retraction of the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e by the cremaster muscle may draw it out of the hand and upward through the ca.n.a.l and even into the abdomen. In a few seconds, when the struggle and retraction have ceased, the knife is inserted through the cord, between its anterior and posterior portions, and the latter, the one which the muscle retracts, is cut completely through. The t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e will now hang limp, and there is no longer any tendency to retraction. It should be pulled down until it will no longer hang loose below the wound and the clamps applied around the still attached portion of the cord, close up to the skin. The clamps, which may be made of any tough wood, are grooved along the center of the surfaces opposed to each other, thereby fulfilling two important indications--(a) enabling the clamps to hold more securely and (b) providing for the application of an antiseptic to the cord. For this purpose a dram of sulphate of copper may be mixed with an ounce of vaseline and pressed into the groove in the face of each clamp. In applying the clamp over the cord it should be drawn so close with pincers as to press out all blood from the compressed cord and destroy its vitality, and the cord applied upon the compressing clamps should be so hard-twined that it will not stretch later and slacken the hold. When the clamp has been fixed the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e is cut off one-half to 1 inch below it, and the clamp may be left thus for 24 hours; then, by cutting the cord around one end of the clamp, the latter may be opened and the stump liberated without any danger of bleeding.

Should the stump hang out of the wound it should be pushed inside with the finger and left there. The wound should begin to discharge white matter on the second day in hot weather or the third in cold, and from that time a good recovery may be expected.

The young horse suffers less from castration than the old, and very rarely perishes. Good health in the subject is all important. Castration should never be attempted during the prevalence of strangles, influenza, catarrhal fever, contagious pleurisy, bronchitis, pneumonia, purpura hemorrhagica, or other specific disease, nor on subjects that have been kept in close, ill-ventilated, filthy buildings, where the system is liable to have been charged with putrid bacteria or other products. Warm weather is to be preferred to cold, but the fly time should be avoided or the flies kept at a distance by the application of a watery solution of tar, carbolic acid, or camphor to the wound.

CASTRATION OF CRYPTORCHIDS (RIDGLINGS).

This is the removal of a t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e or t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es that have failed to descend into the s.c.r.o.t.u.m, but have been detained in the inguinal ca.n.a.l or inside the abdomen. The manipulation requires an accurate anatomical knowledge of the parts, and special skill, experience, and manual dexterity, and can not be made clear to the unprofessional mind in a short description. It consists, however, in the discovery and removal of the missing gland by exploring through the natural channel (the inguinal ca.n.a.l), or, in case it is absent, through the inguinal ring or through an artificial opening made in front and above that channel between the abdominal muscles and the strong fascia on the inner side of the thigh (Poupart's ligament). Whatever method is used, the skin, hands, and instruments should be rendered aseptic with a solution of mercuric chlorid 1 part, water 2,000 parts (a carbolic-acid lotion for the instruments), and the spermatic cord is best torn through by the ecraseur. In many such cases, too, it is desirable to sew up the external wound and keep the animal still, to favor healing of the wound by adhesion.

CONDITIONS FOLLOWING CASTRATION.

_Pain after castration._--Some horses are pained and very restless for several hours after castration, and this may extend to cramps of the bowels and violent colic. This is best kept in check by carefully rubbing the patient dry when he rises from the operation, and then leading him in hand for some time. If the pain still persists a dose of laudanum (1 ounce for an adult) may be given.

_Bleeding after castration._--Bleeding from the wound in the s.c.r.o.t.u.m and from the little artery in the posterior portion of the spermatic cord always occurs, and in warm weather may appear to be quite free. It scarcely ever lasts, however, more than 15 minutes, and is easily checked by das.h.i.+ng cold water against the part.

Bleeding from the spermatic artery in the anterior part of the cord may be dangerous when due precaution has not been taken to prevent it. In such case the stump of the cord should be sought for and the artery twisted with artery forceps or tied with a silk thread. If the stump can not be found, pledgets of tow wet with tincture of muriate of iron may be stuffed into the ca.n.a.l to favor the formation of clot and the closure of the artery.

_Strangulated spermatic cord._--If in castration the cord is left too long, so as to hang out of the wound, the skin wound in contracting grasps and strangles it, preventing the free return of blood and causing a steadily advancing swelling. In addition the cord becomes adherent to the lips of the wound in the skin, whence it derives an increased supply of blood, and is thereby stimulated to more rapid swelling. The subject walks stiffly, with a straddling gait, loses appet.i.te, and has a rapid pulse and high fever. Examination of the wound discloses the partial closure of the skin wound and the protrusion, from its lips, of the end of the cord, red, tense, and varying in size from a hazelnut upward. If there is no material swell and little protrusion, the wound may be enlarged with the knife and the end of the cord broken loose from any connection with the skin and pushed up inside. If the swelling is larger, the ma.s.s const.i.tutes a tumor and must be removed. (See below.)

_Swelling of the sheath, p.e.n.i.s, and abdomen._--This occurs in certain unhealthy states of the system, in unhealthful seasons, as the result of operating without cleansing the sheath and p.e.n.i.s, or of keeping the subject in a filthy, impure building, as the result of infecting the wound by hands or instruments bearing septic bacteria, or as the result of premature closure of the wound, and imprisonment of matter.

Pure air and cleanliness of groin and wound are to be obtained.

Antiseptics, like the mercuric-chlorid lotion (1 part to 2,000) are to be applied to the parts; the wound, if closed, is to be opened anew, any acc.u.mulated matter or blood washed out, and the antiseptic liquid freely applied. The most tense or dependent parts of the swelling in sheath or p.e.n.i.s, or beneath the belly, should be p.r.i.c.ked at intervals of 3 or 4 inches to a depth of half an inch, and antiseptics freely applied to the surface. Fomentations with warm water may also be used to favor oozing from the incisions and to encourage the formation of white matter in the original wounds, which must not be allowed to close again at once. A free, creamlike discharge implies a healthy action in the sore, and is the precursor of recovery.

_Phymosis and paraphymosis._--In cases of swelling, as above, the p.e.n.i.s may be imprisoned within the sheath (phymosis) or protruded and swollen so that it can not be retracted into it (paraphymosis). In these cases the treatment indicated above, and especially the scarifications, will prove a useful preliminary resort. The use of astringent lotions is always desirable, and in case of the protruded p.e.n.i.s the application of an elastic or simple linen bandage, so as to press the blood and acc.u.mulated fluid out, will enable the operator to return it.

_Tumors on the spermatic cord._--These are due to rough handling or dragging upon the cord in castration, to strangulation of unduly long cords in the external wound, to adhesion of the end of the cord to the skin, to inflammation of the cord succeeding exposure to cold or wet, or to the presence of infection (_Staphylococcus botriomyces_). These tumors give rise to a stiff, straddling gait, and may be felt as hard ma.s.ses in the groin connected above with the cord. They may continue to grow slowly for many years until they reach a weight of 15 or 20 pounds, and contract adhesions to all surrounding parts. If disconnected from the skin and inguinal ca.n.a.l they may be removed in the same manner as the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e, while if larger and firmly adherent to the skin and surrounding parts generally, they must be carefully dissected from the parts, the arteries being tied as they are reached and the cord finally torn through with an ecraseur. When the cord has become swollen and indurated up into the abdomen such removal is impossible, though a partial destruction of the ma.s.s may still be attempted by pa.s.sing white-hot, pointed irons upward toward the inguinal ring in the center of the thickened and indurated cord.

CASTRATION BY THE COVERED OPERATION.

This is only required in case of hernia or protrusion of bowels or omentum into the sac of the s.c.r.o.t.u.m, and consists in the return of the hernia and the application of the caustic clamps over the cord and inner walls of the inguinal ca.n.a.l, so that the walls of the latter become adherent above the clamps, the ca.n.a.l is obliterated, and further protrusion is hindered. For the full description of this and of the operation for hernia for geldings, see remarks on hernia.

CASTRATION OF THE MARE.

Castration is a much more dangerous operation in the mare than in the females of other domesticated quadrupeds and should never be resorted to except in animals that become unmanageable on the recurrence of heat and that will not breed or that are utterly unsuited to breeding. Formerly the operation was extensively practiced in Europe, the incision being made through the flank, and a large proportion of the subjects perished.

By operating through the v.a.g.i.n.a the risk can be largely obviated, as the danger of unhealthy inflammation in the wound is greatly lessened. The animal should be fixed in a trevis, with each foot fixed to a post and a sling placed under the body, or it may be thrown and put under chloroform. The manual operation demands special professional knowledge and skill, but it consists essentially in making an opening through the roof of the v.a.g.i.n.a just above the neck of the womb, then following with the hand each horn of the womb until the ovary on that side is reached and grasped between the lips of forceps and twisted off. It might be torn off by an ecraseur especially constructed for the purpose. The straining that follows the operation may be checked by ounce doses of laudanum, and any risk of protrusion of the bowels may be obviated by applying the truss advised to prevent eversion of the womb. To further prevent the pressure of the abdominal contents against the v.a.g.i.n.al wound the mare should be tied short and high for twenty-four or forty-eight hours, after which I have found it best to remove the truss and allow the privilege of lying down. Another important point is to give bran mashes and other laxative diet only, and in moderate quant.i.ty, for a fortnight, and to unload the r.e.c.t.u.m by copious injections of warm water in case impaction is imminent.

STERILITY.

Sterility may be in the male or in the female. If due to the stallion, then all the mares put to him remain barren; if the fault is in the mare, she alone fails to conceive, while other mares served by the same stallion get in foal.

In the stallion sterility may be due to the following causes: (a) Imperfect development of the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es, as in cases in which they are retained within the abdomen; (b) inflammation of the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es, resulting in induration; (c) fatty degeneration of the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es, in stallions liberally fed on starchy feed and not sufficiently exercised; (d) fatty degeneration of the excretory ducts of the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es (_vasa deferentia_); (e) inflammation or ulceration of these ducts; (f) inflammation or ulceration of the mucous membrane covering the p.e.n.i.s; (g) injuries to the p.e.n.i.s from blows (often causing paralysis); (h) warty growths on the end of the p.e.n.i.s; (i) tumors of other kinds (largely pigmentary), affecting the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es or p.e.n.i.s; (j) nervous diseases which abolish the s.e.xual appet.i.te or that control the muscles which are essential to the act of coition; (k) azoturia with resulting weakness or paralysis of the muscles of the loins or the front of the thigh (above the stifle); (l) ossification (_anchylosis_) of the joints of the back or loins, which render the animal unable to rear or mount; (m) spavins, ringbones, or other painful affections of the hind limbs, the pain of which in mounting causes the animal to suddenly stop short in the act. In the first three of these only (a, b, and c) is there real sterility in the sense of the nondevelopment or imperfect development of the male vivifying element (spermatozoa). In the other examples the secretion may be imperfect in kind and amount, but as copulation is prevented it can not reach and impregnate the ovum.

In the mare barrenness is equally due to a variety of causes. In a number of breeding studs the proportion of sterile mares has varied from 20 to 40 per cent. It may be due to: (a) Imperfect development of the ovary and nonmaturation of ova; (b) cystic or other tumors of the ovary; (c) fatty degeneration of the ovary in very obese, pampered mares; (d) fatty degeneration of the excretory tubes of the ovaries (Fallopian tubes); (e) catarrh of the womb, with mucopurulent discharge; (f) irritable condition of the womb, with profuse secretion, straining, and ejection of the s.e.m.e.n; (g) nervous irritability, leading to the same expulsion of the male element; (h) high condition (plethora), with profuse secretion and excitement; (i) low condition, with imperfect maturation of the ova and lack of s.e.xual desire; (j) poor feeding, overwork, and chronic debilitating diseases, as leading to the condition just named; (k) closure of the neck of the womb, temporarily by spasm or permanently by inflammation and induration; (l) closure of the entrance to the v.a.g.i.n.a through imperforate hymen, a rare, though not unknown, condition in the mare; (m) acquired indisposition to breed, seen in old, hard-worked mares which are first put to the stallion when aged; (n) change of climate has repeatedly been followed by barrenness; (o) hybridity, which in male and female alike usually entails sterility.

_Treatment._--The treatment of the majority of these conditions will be found dealt with in other parts of this work, so that it is only necessary here to name them as causes. Some, however, must be specially referred to in this place. Stallions with undescended t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es are beyond the reach of medicine, and should be castrated and devoted to other uses. Indurated t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es may sometimes be remedied in the early stages by smearing with a weak iodin ointment daily for a length of time, and at the same time invigorating the system by liberal feeding and judicious work. Fatty degeneration is best met by an alb.u.minoid diet (wheat bran, cottonseed meal, rape cake) and constant, well-regulated work. Saccharine, starchy, and fatty food (potatoes, wheat, corn, etc.) are to be specially avoided. In the mare one diseased and irritable ovary should be removed, to do away with the resulting excitability of the remainder of the generative organs. An irritable womb, with frequent straining and the ejection of a profuse secretion, may sometimes be corrected by a restricted diet and full but well-regulated work. Even fatigue will act beneficially in some such cases, hence the practice of the Arab riding his mare to exhaustion just before service. The perspiration in such case, like the action of a purgative or the abstraction of blood just before service, benefits, by rendering the blood vessels less full, by lessening secretion in the womb and elsewhere, and thus counteracting the tendency to the ejection and loss of s.e.m.e.n. If these means are ineffectual, a full dose of camphor (2 drams) or of salicin may at times a.s.sist. Low condition and anemia demand just the opposite kind of treatment--rich, nouris.h.i.+ng, alb.u.minoid feed, bitter tonics (gentian), suns.h.i.+ne, gentle exercise, liberal grooming, and supporting treatment generally are here in order.

Spasmodic closure of the neck of the womb is common and is easily remedied in the mare by dilatation with the fingers. The hand, smeared with belladonna ointment and with the fingers drawn into the form of a cone, is introduced through the v.a.g.i.n.a until the projecting, rounded neck of the womb is felt at its anterior end. This is opened by the careful insertion of one finger at a time, until the fingers have been pa.s.sed through the constricted neck into the open cavity of the womb.

The introduction is made with a gentle, rotary motion, and all precipitate violence is avoided, as abrasion, laceration, or other cause of irritation is likely to interfere with the retention of the s.e.m.e.n and consequently with impregnation. If the neck of the womb is rigid and unyielding from the induration which follows inflammation--a rare condition in the mare, though common in the cow--more force will be requisite, and it may even be needful to incise the neck to the depth of one-sixth of an inch in four or more opposite directions prior to forcible dilatation. The incision may be made with a probe-pointed knife, and should be done by a professional man if possible. The subsequent dilatation may be best effected by the slow expansion of sponge or seaweed tents inserted into the narrow ca.n.a.l. In such cases it is best to let the wounds of the neck heal before putting to horse. An imperforate hymen may be freely incised in a crucial manner until the pa.s.sage will admit the human hand. An ordinary knife may be used for this purpose, and after the operation the stallion may be admitted at once or only after the wounds have healed.