EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE OPERATION OF CASTRATION.
These will vary more or less in extent and severity, according to the method employed in its performance, and in any case they may be considered in two divisions; as primary or immediate, and secondary or consecutive.
Amongst the first phenomena most commonly observed is, of course, a manifestation of pain, characterized by symptoms of colic, exhibited by the animal in a more or less marked degree, being the result of the unavoidable irritation arising from the manipulations practised upon the organs of generation, whose nerves rise from the sympathetic as well as from the cerebro-spinal nervous system; and from the pain excited in the spermatic cord by the pressure of the clamps, for example. These colicky pains, which are more severe under the bloodless method than in those of the other mode, usually subside after the first hour following the operation, and as a rule require but little treatment more than that of the walking exercise. This sort of pain having subsided, the only further trouble likely to be noticed is the local trouble resulting from the lesion to which the testicular region has been subjected. Resulting from this local lesion, as well as from the rough manipulations attending the various steps of the different procedures, a peculiar stiffness will be observed in the motion of the animal. This may be referred either to the local pain proper, to the dragging to which the cord has been subjected, or to the presence of the clamps, which, resting closely in the groin, necessarily more or less impede the action of locomotion.
Hemorrhage may also occur immediately after the operation, either while the patient is still on the ground or as soon as he regains his feet. This may be due either to the solution of continuity at the edges of the wound of the envelopes, or may proceed from the small testicular or the spermatic artery. The first two causes of hemorrhage need not engage our attention, usually ceasing spontaneously, and never being attended with serious inconvenience. It is not so, however, in the case of hemorrhage proceeding from the spermatic blood vessel proper, occurring after those methods of operating which dispense with the closing of the artery by artificial appliances, as is done with the clamp or the ligature, or which may be observed in castration by torsion, cauterization, the use of the ecraseur, or especially by the process of simple excision. Though not necessarily fatal, the hemorrhage in these instances may require prompt and effectual interference by the surgeon for its suppression.
It is not rare for castrated animals to become more or less tympanitic, a condition which may be due, more or less, to the introduction of atmospheric air into the abdominal cavity during the performance of the operation. This condition of things is usually remedied by the unaided action of natural causes.
The secondary effects also vary according to the manipulations of the method which they follow. The development of reactive fever is an event which in many cases requires close watching, and while it is true that many castrated horses will manifest no subsequent illness, even to the extent of a slight elevation of temperature, others, on the contrary, show unmistakable signs of a general inflammatory condition and this is the more marked and definite as the condition of the wound has been left in a more or less complicated state. The presence of the ligature or of a portion of the cord which has yet to complete the sloughing action, following the method by cauterization and by the clamps, are sufficient to encourage the inflammatory tendency.