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 écraseur 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.
The enlargement of the abdomen, and its dropping so that it bulges below and to each side, while it falls in at the flank, between the outer angle of the hip bone and the last rib, are significant features which, though they may be caused by abdominal tumor or dropsy, are usually marks of pregnancy. From the same increasing weight of the abdomen the spine in the region of the loins sinks so that the bones of the croup seem to rise, especially back toward the root of the tail. In the early stages of pregnancy the udder develops slowly, and toward its completion quite rapidly. For a long time there is merely a sense of greater fullness when handled; the wrinkles in the skin become shallower and are effaced, and the teats are materially enlarged. Beginning a few weeks after conception, this tends to a steady development, though slight alternations in the sense of successive growth and shrinkage are not uncommon. In milking cows this does not hold, as the milk usually tends to a steady diminution and the udder shrinks slowly until near the completion of the period, when it undergoes its sudden, remarkable development, and yields at first a serous liquid and then the yellow colostrum, which coagulates when heated. As pregnancy advances the mucous membrane lining the vulva becomes swollen and of a darker, bluish-red hue; the mucous secretion also increases, becoming very abundant just before calving. When the feeding has not been altered or restricted, a steady diminution of the salts of lime excreted in the urine is an attendant on pregnancy, the lime being demanded for the growing body of the fetus.
After the fifth month the movements of the calf may often be observed in the right flank, nearly in front of the stifle, when the cow is drinking cold water. The sensation of cold on the side of the first stomach, which lies to the left and directly below the womb ([Pl. I]), stimulates the calf to active movements, which are detected on the sudden jerking outward of the abdominal wall as if from blows delivered from within. In a loose, pendent abdomen in the latter months of gestation the skin may often be seen pushed out at a sharp angle, irrespective of the period of drinking.