OPERATION OF OPENING THE STOMACH.[760]
OBSTRUCTION DUE TO A “CASTING.”—Now, my son, a casting of bone, or
of feathers, or of wool, or of cotton-wool, may get stuck in a hawk’s
stomach[760] at the end of the sternum,[761] and the hawk be unable to
eject it upwards or downwards. _Symptoms_: If you place your finger on
the stomach, you will be able to perceive a hard substance the size of
a large walnut, and this although you may have given no casting.[762]
The hawk will not be able to eat more meat than an amount equal to one
sparrow; she will try to, but there will be no room, and gradually she
will waste away till she dies. _Treatment_: in the morning, before
feeding, give her an emetic, such as the fouling of a tobacco-pipe, or
the juice of black raisins;[763] rub these on her tongue and on the
inside of her mouth. Watch her till she shows signs of vomiting; then,
as she works her neck from side to side “to cast,” that obstruction
will come up as far as the throat but no farther. You must promptly
grasp her by the throat, an assistant holding her firmly by the legs,
while with a probe or tweezers or other instrument you somehow or
other extract the obstruction, and so cure her. For a few days after
this, mix her meat with the yolk of an egg, but beware of giving any
feathers or bones or casting of any kind. _Item_: Should she not
vomit, or should she not bring up the obstruction, then cut some
mutton into small pieces and cast it into warm water, and give her of
that an amount equal to a sparrow. Then, after a minute or so, give
her a small amount of sal-ammoniac and sugar-candy, in the manner
previously explained, and watch her. As soon as she begins to vomit,
and the obstruction appears, seize her and remove it as just explained
above. _Item_: if this expedient also fail, then cast her and tie her
up firmly in some quiet spot protected from wind and draughts. Have by
you ready a needle and silk, and yellow aloes powdered and mixed with
antimony. Have the hawk’s legs separated wide apart. Now, the hawk
being on her back with her head away from you and raised, you will
find at the root of the thigh and at the end of the sternum a fine
skin:[764] pluck out the small feathers[765] from this, so as to lay
bare the skin. Then with a sharp pen-knife make a slit lengthways in
the skin, two fingers’ breadth in length. After the “skin,”[766] you
will find a second and a third “fine-skin,”[764] which also slit. Now,
with the greatest care, insert two fingers, and lift up and expose
the guts to view. Quickly and dexterously open the stomach, replace
it in its proper position, and after that sew up, one by one, the
three “fine-skins” and lastly the outer “skin.” On the outside wound,
sprinkle the powdered aloes and antimony, and then free the hawk and
let her rest. Feed her every day on the yolks of eggs: if she will
not eat them, pound a little meat, about half a sparrow in quantity,
and mix it with the yolks of two eggs[767] and give it to her in the
morning, and again at noon, and in the afternoon. If she eats this
meat and “puts it over,” again give her the yolks of two eggs with
pounded meat. Feed her thus for two days. On the third day give her
minced meat with the yolk of egg, and feed her thus for three days.
Then for three days more give her meat, cut up into bits the size of
a filbert and mixed with the yolk of an egg. During this period you
must on no account let her pull or tear at her food; for the exertion
of pulling will burst the stitches, either inside or out, and if the
stitches of even one of the skins gives way, she is destroyed. Anyone
accustomed to caponize cocks will have no difficulty in performing
this operation: the two operations are practically the same.
OBSTRUCTION DUE TO A BLOW.—There is another form of this disease,
which does not arise from a retained “casting”: to cure this is an
easier operation than that of cutting out the “casting” as above. The
symptoms are the same: the hawk, even if a female goshawk, cannot
eat more than one sparrow in quantity, and has in its stomach a hard
substance the size of a walnut. If you give her her sparrow’s portion
of meat with feathers, she will cast in the morning but the hard
substance will still remain present in the intestine. This disease
is generally found in long-winged hawks, since it generally results
from a kick in the guts from a gazelle, or from a buffet by a goose’s
wing (and a buffet from a goose’s wing is worse than a blow from a
club), or from an injury from the beak or claws of a crane, or from
such an ill-judged stoop at some quarry that the stomach has come
in violent contact with the ground.[768] The injury produces an
internal hemorrhage, and the blood gradually congeals and fills up the
stomach, and so reduces its capacity that it cannot contain its full
quantity. The congealed blood gradually becomes converted into a white
substance like cheese, day by day growing harder and pressing more on
the stomach, till at last the substance petrifies and the bird dies.
If the hawk is treated before “petrefaction” has set in, she can be
cured. _Treatment_: the operation is the same as in the previous case;
the cheese-like substance must be cut out and the stomach freed. The
hawk must be fed after the operation in the same way.
After these operations, you must on no account let your hawk bathe
till the scab[769] formed by the aloes and antimony drops off of its
own accord; for bathing before this may kill your hawk. This is a rule
that applies to every kind of wound, whether inflicted by the claw of
an eagle or by the foot of a deer. Should your hawk be thirsty, you
may, after five or six days have elapsed, offer her water in a cup,
letting her drink a few beakfuls, enough to allay her thirst.
FOOTNOTES:
[760] _K͟hazīna._
[761] _ʿAz̤m-i zawraqī_, _lit._ “boat-bone.”
[762] _T̤uʿmah_, Ar., “meat, food; lure, etc.,” is used by the Persian
author both for “food” and for “casting.”
[763] _Mavīz_, black raisins with stones.
[764] _Parda._
[765] _Par-k͟hurda-hā._
[766] _Pūst._
[767] The eggs are half to two-thirds the size of English eggs.
[768] Even wild hawks make mistakes in stooping and injure themselves,
but in this case it is the breast-bone that gets injured.
[769] _Kivla_, “scab.”