Chapter 18

_Preventive._--The true preventive of such conditions is to be found in a sound hygiene. The breeding animal should be of adult age, neither overfed nor underfed, but well fed and moderately exercised; in other words, the most vigorous health should be sought, not only that a strong race may be propagated, but that the whole herd, or nearly so, may breed with certainty. Fleming gives 79 per cent as the general average of cows that are found to breed in one year. Here more than a fifth of the progeny is sacrificed and a fifth of the product of the dairy. With careful management the proportion of breeders should approach 100 per cent. The various local and general obstacles to conception should be carefully investigated and removed. The vigorous health which comes from a sufficiently liberal diet and abundant exercise should be solicited, and the comparative bloodlessness and weakness which advance with undue fattening should be sedulously avoided. In bull or cow which is becoming unduly fat and showing indications of sexual indifference, the treatment must be active. Turning out on a short pasture where it must work hard for a living will often suffice. The bull which can not be turned out to pasture may sometimes be utilized in the yoke or tread power, or he may be kept a part of his time in a field or paddock chained by the ring in his nose to a strong wire extending from one side of the lot to the other and attached securely to two trees or posts. The wire should be higher than the back of the bull, which will move frequently from end to end. If he is indisposed to take sufficient exercise in this way he may be safely driven. An instance of the value of the exercise in these incipient cases of fatty degeneration is often quoted. The cow Dodona, condemned as barren at Earl Spencer's, was sold cheap to Jonas Webb, who had her driven by a road a distance of 120 miles to his farm at Wilbraham, soon after which she became pregnant. In advanced cases, however, in which the fatty degeneration is complete, recovery is impossible.

In case of rigid closure of the mouth of the womb the only resort is dilatation. This is far more difficult and uncertain in the cow than in the mare. The neck of the womb is longer, is often tortuous in its course, and its walls so approximated to each other and so rigid that it may be all but impossible to follow it, and there is always danger of perforating its walls and opening into the cavity of the abdomen, or, short of that, of causing inflammation and a new, rigid, fibrous formation which on healing leaves matters worse than before. The opening must be carefully made with the finger, and when that has entered the womb further dilatation may be effected by inserting a sponge tent or by careful stretching with a mechanical dilator. (Pl. XX, fig. 6.)

STERILITY FROM OTHER CAUSES.

The questions as to whether a bull is a sure stock getter and whether a cow is a breeder are so important that it would be wrong to pass over other prominent causes of sterility. Breeding at too early an age is a common source of increasing weakness of constitution which has existed in certain breeds. Jerseys have especially been made the victims of this mistake, the object being to establish the highest milking powers in the smallest obtainable body which will demand the least material and outlay for its constant repair of waste. With success in this line there has been the counterbalancing disadvantage of impaired vigor, with too often lessened fertility as well as increased predisposition to disease. When the heifers of the race have for generation after generation been bred under a year old, the demand for the nourishment of the fetus is too great a drain on the immature animal, which accordingly remains small and stunted. As it fails to develop in size, so every organ fails to be nourished to perfection. Similarly with the immature bull put to too many cows; he fails to develop his full size, vigor, or stamina, and transfers his acquired weakness to his progeny. An increasing number of barren females and an increasing proclivity to abortions are the necessary results of both courses. When this early breeding has occurred accidentally it is well to dry up the dam just after calving, and to avoid having her served again until full grown.

Some highly fed and plethoric females seem to escape conception by the very intensity of the generative ardor. The frequent passage of urine, accompanied by contractions of the womb and vagina and a profuse secretion from their surfaces, leads to the expulsion of the semen after it has been lodged in the genital passages. This may be remedied somewhat by giving 1-1/2 pounds of Epsom salt a day or two before she comes in heat, and subjecting her at the same time to a spare diet. Should the excessive ardor of the cow not be controllable in this way, she may be shut up for a day or two, until the heat is passing off, when under the lessened excitement the semen is more likely to be retained.

The various diseases of the ovaries, their tubes, the womb, the testicles and their excretory ducts, as referred to under "Excess of venereal desire," are causes of barrenness. In this connection it may be said that the discharges consequent on calving are fatal to the vitality of semen introduced before these have ceased to flow; hence service too soon after calving, or that of a cow which has had the womb or genital passages injured so as to keep up a mucopurulent flow until the animal comes in heat, is liable to fail of conception. Any such discharge should be first arrested by repeated injections as for leucorrhea, after which the male may be admitted.

Feeding on a very saccharine diet, which greatly favors the deposition of fat, seems to have an even more direct effect in preventing conception during such regimen. Among other causes of barrenness are all those that favor abortion, ergoted grasses, smutty wheat or corn, laxative or diuretic drinking water, and any improper or musty feed that causes indigestions, colics, and diseases of the urinary organs, notably gravel; also savin, rue, cantharides, and all other irritants of the bowels or kidneys.

Hermaphrodites are barren, of course, as their sexual organs are not distinctively either male or female. The heifer born as a twin with a bull is usually hermaphrodite and barren, but the animals of either sex in which development of the organs is arrested before they are fully matured remain as in the male or female prior to puberty, and are barren. Bulls with both testicles retained within the abdomen may go through the form of serving a cow, but the service is unfruitful; the spermatozoa are not fully elaborated. So I have examined a heifer with a properly formed but very small womb and an extremely narrow vagina and vulva, the walls of which were very muscular, that could never be made to conceive. A post-mortem examination would probably have disclosed an imperfectly formed ovary incapable of bringing ova to maturity.

A bull and cow that have been too closely inbred in the same line for generations may prove sexually incompatible and unable to generate together, though both are abundantly prolific when coupled with animals of other strains.

Finally, a bull may prove unable to get stock, not from any lack of sexual development, but from disease of other organs (back, loins, hind limbs), which renders him unable to mount with the energy requisite to the perfect service.

CONGESTION AND INFLAMMATION OF THE TESTICLES (ORCHITIS).

This visually results from blows or other direct injuries, but may be the result of excessive service or of the formation of some new growth (tumor) in the gland tissue. The bull moves stiffly, with straddling gait, and the right or left half of the scrotum in which the affected testicle lies is swollen, red, and tender, and the gland is drawn up within the sac and dropped again at frequent intervals. It may be treated by rest; by 1-1/2 pounds Epsom salt given in 4 quarts of water; by a restricted diet of some succulent feed; by continued fomentations with warm water by means of sponges or rags sustained by a sling passed around the loins and back between the hind legs. The pain may be allayed by smearing with a solution of opium or of extract of belladonna. Should a soft point appear, indicating the formation of matter, it may be opened with a sharp lancet and the wound treated daily with a solution of a teaspoonful of carbolic acid in a half pint of water. Usually, however, when the inflammation has proceeded to this extent, the gland will be ruined for purposes of procreation and must be cut out. (See "Castration," p. 299.)

INFLAMMATION OF THE SHEATH.

While this may occur in bulls from infection during copulation and from bruises, blows, and other mechanical injuries, the condition is more common in the ox in connection with the comparative inactivity of the parts. The sheath has a very small external opening, the mucous membrane of which is studded with sebaceous glands secreting a thick, unctuous matter of a strong, heavy odor. Behind this orifice is a distinct pouch, in which this unctuous matter is liable to accumulate when the penis is habitually drawn back. Moreover, the sheath has two muscles (protractors) which lengthen it, passing into it from the region of the navel, and two (retractors) that shorten it, passing into it from the lower surface of the pelvic bones above. (Pl. IX, fig. 2.) The protractors keep the sheath stretched, so that it habitually covers the penis, while the retractors shorten it up in the act of service, so that the penis can project to its full extent. In stud bulls the frequent protrusion of the erect and enlarged penis and the retraction and dilation of the opening of the sheath serve to empty the pouch and prevent any accumulation of sebaceous matter or urine. In the ox, on the other hand, the undeveloped and inactive penis is usually drawn back so as to leave the anterior preputial pouch empty, so that the sebaceous matter has space to accumulate and is never expelled by the active retraction of the sheath and protrusion of the erect penis in service. Again, the ox rarely protrudes the tip of the penis in urination, the urine is discharged into the preputial pouch and lodges and decomposes there, so that there is a great liability to the precipitation of its earthy salts in the form of gravel. The decomposing ammoniacal urine, the gritty crystals precipitated from it, and the fetid, rancid, sebaceous matter set up inflammation in the delicate mucous membrane lining the passage. The membrane is thickened, reddened, rendered friable, and ultimately ulcerated, and the now narrowed sheath is blocked by the increasing mass of sebaceous and urinous material and the decomposing mucus and pus. The penis can no longer be protruded, the urine escapes in a small stream through the narrowing sheath, and finally the outlet is completely blocked and the urine distends the back part of the sheath. This will fluctuate on being handled, and soon the unhealthy inflammation extends on each side of it, causing a thick, doughy, tender swelling under the belly and between the thighs. The next step in the morbid course is overdistention of the bladder, with the occurrence of colicky pains, looking at the flanks, uneasy movements of the hind limbs, raising or twisting of the tail, pulsatory contractions of the urethra under the anus, and finally a false appearance of relief, which is caused by rupture of the bladder. Before rupture takes place the distended bladder may press on the rectum and obstruct the passage of the bowel dejections. Two mistakes are therefore probable--first, that the bowels alone are to be relieved, and, second, that the trouble is obstruction of the urethra by a stone. Hence the need of examining the sheath and pushing the finger into its opening to see that there is no obstruction there, in all cases of retention of urine, overdistended bladder, or blocked rectum in the ox. The disease may be acute or chronic--the first by reason of acute, adhesive inflammation blocking the outlet, the second by gradual thickening and ulceration of the sheath and blocking by the sebaceous and calculous accretion.

_Treatment._--The treatment of this affection depends on the stage. If recent and without instant danger of rupture of the bladder, the narrow opening of the sheath should be freely cut open in the median line below, and the sac emptied out with a finger or spoon, after which it should be thoroughly washed with tepid water. To make the cleansing more thorough a catheter or a small, rubber tube may be inserted well back into the sheath, and water may be forced through it from a syringe or a funnel inserted into the other end of the tube and considerably elevated. A fountain syringe, which should be in every house, answers admirably. The sheath may be daily washed out with tepid water, with a suds made with Castile soap, or with a weak solution of sulphate of zinc (one-half dram to a quart of water). If these attentions are impossible, most cases, after cleansing, will do well if merely driven through clean water up to the belly once a day.

In case the disease has progressed to absolute obstruction, with the bladder ready to rupture any moment, no time must be lost in opening into the urethra with a sharp knife over the bony arch under the anus, where the pulsations are seen in urinating. This incision is best made in the median line from above downward, but in the absence of a skillful operator a transverse incision with a sharp knife over the bone in the median line until the urine flows with a gush is better than to let the patient die. Considerable blood will be lost and the wound will heal tardily, but the ox will be preserved. Then the slitting and cleansing of the sheath can be done at leisure, as described above. If the bladder is ruptured, the case is hopeless.

INFLAMMATION OF THE SHEATH AND PENIS FROM BRUISING.

This also is an affection of work oxen, caused by the pressure and friction of the sling when the animals are held in stocks for shoeing. This crushing of both sheath and penis for half an hour or more leads to the development, some hours later, of a hard, hot, and painful swelling, extending from the scrotum as far as the opening of the sheath. Fever sets in, with dry muzzle, red eyes, hard, full, rapid pulse, accelerated breathing, and elevated temperature. The ox stands obstinately with his hind legs drawn apart and urine falling drop by drop from the sheath. Appetite and rumination are suspended. In twenty-four hours there may be indications of advancing gangrene (mortification), the swelling becomes cold, soft, and doughy; it may even crack slightly from the presence of gas; a reddish brown, fetid liquid oozes from the swelling, especially around the edges, and if the animal survives it is only with a great loss of substance of the sheath and penis.

_Prevention._--The prevention of such an injury is easy. It is only necessary to see that the slings do not press upon the posterior part of the abdomen. They must be kept in front of the sheath.

_Treatment._--Treatment, to be effective, must be prompt and judicious. Put around the patient a strap with soft pads in contact with the affected parts, constantly soaked in cold water for at least 24 hours. A pound or two of Epsom salt in 4 quarts of hot water should also be given. The second day the parts may be washed with 1 quart of witch-hazel (extract), 2 drams sugar of lead, and 1 ounce laudanum, or the cold-water irrigations may be continued if the active inflammation persists. In case the swelling continues hard and resistant, it may be pricked at the most prominent points to the depth of one-third of an inch with a lancet first dipped in dilute carbolic acid, and the whole surface should be washed frequently with some antiseptic solution.

When softening occurs in the center of a hard mass and fluctuation can be felt between two fingers pressed on different parts of such softening, it should be freely opened to let out the putrid pus, and the cavity should be syringed often with antiseptic solution.

In bad cases extensive sloughs of dead skin, of the whole wall of the sheath, and even of the penis, may take place, which will require careful antiseptic treatment. The soaking of the urine into the inflamed and softened tissue and the setting up of putrefactive action not only endanger great destruction of the tissues from putrid inflammation, but even threaten life itself from a general blood poisoning (septicemia). Every case should have skillful treatment to meet its various phases, but in the severe ones this is most urgently demanded.

INFLAMMATION OF THE URETHRA.

Like other males, the bull sometimes suffers from inflammation of the canal which conveys the urine through the penis, and a whitish mucopurulent discharge forms in consequence. It may have originated in gravel, the excitement of too frequent service, infection from a cow with leucorrhea, or from extension of inflammation from the sheath. Besides the oozing of the whitish liquid from the end of the penis and sheath, there is tenderness and pain when handled, and while there is no actual arrest of the urine, its flow is subject to frequent voluntary checks, as the scalding liquid irritates the tender surface.

_Treatment._--If recognized before the discharge sets in, a dose of 1-1/2 pounds of Epsom salt and local, warm fomentations would be appropriate. After the onset of the whitish discharge a daily injection of a solution of 20 grains of permanganate of potassium in a pint of water into the penis will be beneficial.

WARTS AND PAPILLARY GROWTHS ON THE PENIS.

These are not frequent in bull or ox. They may interfere with the protrusion of the organ from its sheath or with service, and always give rise to a bad-smelling discharge.

_Treatment._--They may be twisted off with a pair of small tweezers or cut off with a pair of scissors, and the seat burned with a pencil of lunar caustic. To get hold of the penis in the bull, bring him up to a cow. In the ox it will be necessary to push it out by manipulation through the sheath. In difficult cases the narrow opening of the sheath may be slit open.

WOUNDS OF THE PENIS.

The most common wounds are those sustained by blows of horns, sticks, etc. The blood vessels and sacs are ruptured to a greater or less extent and considerable swellings filled with coagulated blood and inflammatory products occur, leading to distortion of the organ, and it may be to the impossibility of protruding it.

_Treatment._--A lotion of a dram of alum in a quart of water may be applied (injected into the sheath, if necessary), and a large sponge constantly irrigated by a stream of cold water may be kept applied by means of a surcingle to the outer side of the sheath. Incisions are rarely applicable to an organ of this kind, but in case of the existence of an extensive clot which is unlikely to be absorbed the lancet may be resorted to. If the injury leads to paralysis of the penis and hanging out of its sheath, it should be supported in a sling and astringents used freely until inflammation subsides. Then the restoration of power may be sought by a blister between the thighs, by the use of electricity, or by the careful use of nerve stimulants, such as strychnin, 1 grain twice daily.

ULCERS ON THE PENIS.

Sores on the penis of the bull may result from gravel or sebaceous masses in the sheath or from having served a cow having leucorrhea.

_Treatment._--These may be treated by frequent injections into the sheath of a lotion made with 1 dram sugar of lead, 60 drops carbolic acid, and 1 quart water.

POLYPUS OF THE VAGINA OR UTERUS.

A polypus is a tumor growing from the mucous membrane, and often connected to it by a narrow neck. A definite cause can not always be assigned. If growing in the vagina, a polypus may project as a reddish, rounded tumor from the vulva, especially during the act of passing water. It can be distinguished from descent of the womb by the absence of the orifice of that cavity, which can be felt by the oiled hand beyond the tumor in the depth of the vagina. From a vaginal hernia caused by the protrusion of some abdominal organ enveloped by the relaxed wall of the vagina it may be distinguished by its persistence, its firm substance, and the impossibility of returning it into the abdomen by pressure. A hernia containing a portion of bowel gurgles when handled and can be completely effaced by pressure, the gut passing into the abdomen.

A polypus in the womb is less easily recognized. At the time of calving it may be felt through the open mouth of the womb and recognized by the educated touch (it must be carefully distinguished from the mushroom-formed cotyledons (Pl. XIII, fig. 2), to which in ruminants the fetal membranes are attached). At other times, unless the womb is opened in the effort to expel it, the polypus can be detected only by examining the womb with the oiled hand introduced through the rectum.

Polypi may cause a mucopurulent discharge or they may only be suspected when they prove an obstacle to parturition. The best way to remove them is to put the chain of an Ècraseur around the neck, or pedicle, of the tumor and tear it through; or the narrow neck may be torn through by the emasculator, or in an emergency it may be twisted through by rotating the tumor on its axis. The removal of the tumor will allow calving to proceed; after this the sore may be treated by a daily injection of one-half dram sulphate of zinc, 1 dram carbolic acid, and 1 quart milk-warm water.

SIGNS OF PREGNANCY.

If a cow remains for three or four weeks after service without showing signs of heat (bulling), she is probably pregnant. There are very exceptional cases in which the well-fed cow will accept the bull weeks or months after actual conception, and others equally exceptional in which the well-thriven but unimpregnated female will refuse the male persistently, but these in no way invalidate the general rule.

The bull, no matter how vigorous or how ardent his sexual instinct, can not be made to pay any attention to a cow which is not in heat; hence indications of pregnancy can be had from both the male and female side. When she has conceived, the cow usually becomes more quiet and docile, and lays on flesh and fat more rapidly, especially during the first four months of gestation. The stimulus to digestion and nutrition created by the demands of the growing fetus, added to the quieter and more uneventful life, contributes to this result. Some feeders avail themselves of this disposition to prepare heifers and cows speedily for the butcher.