78 SPECIAL VETERINARY THERAPY 



The ''third-day" advocates present their side with 

 the argument that it is practically impossible to re- 

 move the afterbirth from some of the cotyledons be- 

 fore the third day. Even if this v^ere a fact, which 

 I doubt, it would be better to leave attached a few 

 small shreds of clean tissue which will probably not 

 undergo degeneration at all if the uterus is carefully 

 swabbed, than to allow the entire mass to approach a 

 state of foul decomposition, which is always the con- 

 dition presented if three days elapse. By the third 

 day the placental portion of the secundines has al- 

 ways degenerated and the uterus is a sticky, slimy and 

 far from pleasant smelling organ. 



I am thoroughly aware of the fact that from the 

 standpoint of manual labor, the third day is the day of 

 choice. Gentle, steady traction with appropriate 

 torsion brings out the envelopes en toto. But the de- 

 composed, semi-liquid placental debris and other dis- 

 charges remain. The os has become closed to such 

 an extent that only two or three fingers can enter and 

 it is practically impossible to thoroughly cleanse the 

 organ. From every professional standpoint, twenty- 

 four hours is a sufficient length of time to wait before 

 resorting to manual removal. 



This has been my rule over a period of more than 

 ten years and out of several hundred cases, I have yet 

 to lose the first one. On the other hand, I have had 

 deaths from waiting too long, sometimes three days, 

 and unsatisfactory terminations even after two days. 



After completing the removal, my method is to 

 swab out the uterus with solid fists full of absorbent 



