DISEASES OF THE REPRODUCTORY SYSTEM. 275 



vagina during delivery, and retained placental membranes. 

 This disease may also be induced by exposure to cold or 

 other debilitating influences. 



Acute metritis may be regarded as due to pyaemia, or 

 septicsemic poisoning, depending generally on absorption of 

 septic matter from the parturient canal. Secondary foci of 

 inflammation appear in the brain, lungs, and other organs. 



When due to the retention of the placental membranes, 

 the disease depends upon the decomposition of coagula and 

 pieces of the placenta within the uterus, and the absorption 

 of the products of their disintegration into the blood. 



Symptoms. — The animal is uneasy, and loses its appetite. 

 The milk becomes very nearly, or quite suppressed. 



If any can be squeezed out, it is a bluish tint, and thin 

 and watery, or it may be a reddish-brown colour. 



The vulva is small and contracted, and the vaginal 

 mucous membrane sometimes of a deep red or purple hue, 

 with petechial spots and purple streaks. 



There is violent straining, and the discharge of a dark- 

 coloured, foetid, decomposing fluid. 



The pulse is feeble, thready, and accelerated ; the heart's 

 action disturbed ; the surface of the body cold. 



The animal shows signs of abdominal pain, and sometimes 

 manifests symptoms of inflammation of the feet. 



As the disease progresses the animal gradually falls, the 

 pulse becomes feebler and feebler, and the breathing hurried 

 and thoracic, until at length complete unconsciousness sets 

 in, the animal dying in from twelve hours to two days or 

 more after the onset. 



Morbid Anatomy. — There is diff'use inflammation of the 

 mucous membrane of the uterus, which soon extends to the 

 uterine veins. 



The inflammation extends to the peritoneum and intes- 

 tines, and tends to spread over a large surface. 



18—2 



