CHAPTER VI.
CASTRATION OF FEMALES — HISTORY — INDICATIONS — EFFECTS UPON THE ORGANISM AND SPECIAL FUNCTIONS — ADVANTAGES IN COWS — CONDITIONS FAVORABLE TO THE OPERATION — ANATOMY — MODUS OPERANDI — BY THE FLANKS — CHARLIER’S PROCESS — INSTRUMENTS — VARIOUS STEPS — DIVISION OF THE VAGINA — SEIZING THE OVARY — TWISTING IT OFF — COMPLICATIONS — HEMORRHAGE — PERITONITIS — ABSCESS OF THE PELVIC CAVITY — CONSTIPATION — SUBCUTANEOUS EMPHYSEMA — CASTRATION OF THE SMALL ANIMALS — OF SWINE — OF SLUTS — OF FOWLS.
As I have stated before, the revival of the operation of castration upon large females is due to a Louisiana farmer, Thomas Winn, who, in the year 1831, castrated several of his cows.
Without entering upon the history which includes a record of the failures and successes attendant upon the introduction of the operation, it may suffice to say that until the improvements made by Charlier in the manipulations involved in the operation, it encountered considerable opposition, and it is within a comparatively recent period that it has become established in the domains of veterinary surgery.
The indications by which this operation commend itself to agriculturists, and others who find profit or pleasure in the use or ownership of these domestic animals, are several. Among them are the influence which it exercises upon the secretion of milk in cows, and upon the power of accumulating fat, and its effects upon the character and temper of all the large females, in which relation it obviously acts as a therapeutic agent, in overcoming certain peculiar conditions by which they are distinguished. In respect to the effect of the operation of spaying the cow upon the milk secretion, it is a fact well established that it not only increases the amount and duration of the flow, but also improves the quality of that valuable fluid, the spayed cow not only continuing the production from eighteen to twenty-four months, but giving a product far richer in the elements of nutrition. This is shown by the enhanced proportions of the cream, the caseine and the sugar, which determine its richness and value, both economically and commercially, after alteration.
But even this argument in favor of spaying the cow is rendered more weighty by the fact that besides its influence on the milky secretion, there is also that which is furnished by the consideration of its effect in augmenting the deposit of fat throughout the frame, for it is through this tendency that the flesh of the animal becomes so greatly improved in its nutritive quality as compared with that of the same species when in the entire condition, becoming so noticeably more tender, juicy and palatable, retaining more of the oily element, digesting more easily, and so, of course, acquiring a pecuniary value in the market not before possessed. These remarks apply to the dry equally with the milch cow, and leaving out the reference to the milk secretion, to the ox as well.
With respect to the effect of the operation upon the character and disposition of the cow, these are easily illustrated in the movements of the nymphomaniac animal, which may be said to be constantly in a state of hysterical excitement. They seem to be in continual conditions of heat, running after and mounting other animals with which they may be in company, while never producing and giving no milk. They are always in a lean condition, and must remain a pecuniary loss to the dairyman. This manifestation of nymphomania is also met with in the mare, which, continually exhibiting signs of heat, becomes more or less dangerous on that account. In these cases the advantage of the operation of spaying cannot be overlooked. We have personal knowledge of several cases of this character, in which worthless and troublesome mares have been transformed into docile and valuable animals.