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 1½ 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.