RETENTION OF THE FCETAL ENVELOPES. 569 



prostration, diminution in the secretion of milk, decreased appetite, re- 

 spiration perhaps quickened, temperature increased, and other indica- 

 tions of illness. 



The complications from placental retention are somewhat numerous. 

 Contact with the decomposing membranes may so irritate the interior of 

 the uterus as to occasion metritis, or even metro-peritonitis — a diseased 

 condition which is always serious, and often fatal. There is also risk of 

 septik^emia ; and even under the most favorable circumstances there 

 sometimes remains a local irritation — a chronic vaginitis or metritis which 

 leads to leucorrhoea. 



Some authorities have observed trismus, tetanus, metastatic arthritis, 

 and chest affections, as seqicelce of placental retention. 



There is no danger when the retention has only lasted for two or three 

 days, and particularly if a large portion of the membranes protrudes be- 

 yond the vulva, and they have a fresh tint. Attention is necessary, 

 however, when the placenta begins to putrefy, and a fetid discharge 

 commences from the vulva ; though even so late as fifteen days after par- 

 turition the membranes may be expelled spontaneously, without any in- 

 jury occurring to the animal from the prolonged retention. The case is 

 serious, however, when the animal begins to show symptoms of general 

 illness, and, particularly if no portion of the placenta can be seen, or the 

 OS be occluded. Plastic adhesion of the placenta to the uterus is also a 

 grave complication, though happily rare. 



In these instances, the animal gradually becomes listless, weak, and 

 emaciated, loses its appetite, and ceases to yield milk, until at length it 

 falls into a state of marasmus, and perishes from septikaemia. Or in 

 more rapid cases, with these general symptoms we have the lining mem- 

 brane of the vagina of a deep-red color and intensely hot, a fetid sanguineo- 

 purulent discharge from the vulva ; tremblings over the whole body, 

 hurried respiration, intense fever, and all the other signs of metritis. 



Though retention is not, in the majority of cases in the Cow, a very 

 serious affair, yet it should be attended to even in this animal. With other 

 creatures it is much more to be dreaded, as they incur greater risks by 

 prolonged retention. 



Saint-Cyr mentions the case of a fine Mare which died in less than 

 eight days from metritis, due to the fcetal membranes being retained ; 

 though the cause was not ascertained in time. 



Causes. 



Retention, it appears, occurs most frequently in cases of abortion, or 

 when birth occurs some days before the proper time. It has also been re- 

 marked that a Cow which has retained its placenta unusually long after 

 the birth of its first calf, will do so at every succeeding birth. A protract- 

 ed and laborious birth is also said by some authorities to favor retention, 

 while other obstetrists declare that the converse is true. The accident 

 is stated to be more frequent with old Cows, and especially when these 

 are employed in draught — as in France and other countries. Abnormal 

 adhesion between the maternal and fcetal placentae, of course, would be 

 a sure caqse of prolonged retention, and we have given instances of such 

 adhesion ; indeed, every obstetrist knows that at times there is much dif- 

 ficulty in disuniting the cotyledons in the uterus. 



When the cervix uteri contracts rapidly after delivery, and the os is 



