BLEEDING IN THE PIG.
Breeders sometimes bleed by slitting one of the animal’s ears or cutting the tail. It is preferable to bleed with a lancet from the marginal veins of the ear, the external saphenous vein a little above the hock, or the subcutaneous vein of the forearm.
SETONS, ROWELS, PLUGS, OR ISSUES.
Although the application of setons is still practised in horses, that of “issues” has largely been given up in bovine animals, although some practitioners still regard issues as of considerable value and as producing effects similar to, or better than, those of sinapisms.
They are usually inserted in the region of the dewlap; the materials employed comprise black and white hellebore, veratrine and stems of clematis.
Two methods are practised.
In the first, a transverse fold is raised in the skin of the dewlap, which is divided with a stroke of the bistoury, leaving a little aperture in the skin. By introducing the rounded ends of a pair of curved scissors the subcutaneous connective tissue is broken down, leaving a little space beneath the skin, into which the plug is introduced. Swelling takes places very rapidly—in twenty-four to forty-eight hours it is very considerable—and if the substance employed is violent in its action, like hellebore, it must be withdrawn, as otherwise considerable sloughing takes place. To facilitate this object a thread or piece of string is usually attached to the plug before it is inserted.
In the second method, the irritant material is attached to, or smeared on, a strip of broad linen tape which is passed in precisely the same manner as in the horse (see Dollar’s “Operative Technique,” pp. 107–111).
CHAPTER III.
APPARATUS OF LOCOMOTION.
