584 ACCIDENTS INCIDENTAL TO PARTURITION 



Complications. 



^One of the ordinary complications of this accident, is the adherence of 

 the foetal placenta to the uterine surface ; though this is much more 

 frequent with animals which have a multiple placenta — Cow, Sheep, 

 and Goat — than with the Mare, Ass, Sow, Carnivorous animals, or the 

 Rabbit. 



The inversion of the uterus — when complete — also brings about dis- 

 placement of the vagina, as Hurtrel d'Arboval has remarked ; the deep- 

 er portion of this part is found folded on the neighboring surface of the 

 cervix ; the bladder and inferior wall of the rectum are drawn into the 

 middle of the pelvic canal, and occupy the place the uterus has quitted -, 

 the meatus urinarius is doubled on itself, and so compressed that no 

 urine can flow through it ; while the ureters continuing to carry that fluid 

 to the bladder, this reservoir soon becomes filled and greatly distended, 

 without relief being possible. Hence results another source of suffering, 

 and another cause of exhausting efforts which are added to those 

 occasioned by the prolapsed uterus. In certain cases there may also 

 exist prolapsus of the rectum, and displacement, or even inversion, of 

 the bladder. 



The uterus may also be wounded or torn, either from bad management 

 during parturition, or from injudicious attempts at reposition ; or the 

 injury may be due to rats, cats, dogs, or pigs gnawing at the bleeding 

 mass ; sometimes it is the creature itself, or a neighboring animal which 

 inflicts the damage. 



The contact of the air, and particularly of foreign bodies, induces 

 inflammation, which frequently runs on gangrene, and this to dissolution. 

 Gangrene is readily induced in the Sheep. Sometimes perforation of 

 the vagina or uterus, arising at times from sloughing of a gangrenous 

 patch, has caused fatal peritonitis ; at other times pelvic abscesses have 

 formed. 



After reduction has been effected, metritis and metro-peritonitis may 

 appear ; this is not at all unlikely in the Mare. Lafosse mentions para- 

 plegia also as a complication ; this may be a consequence of gangrene 

 and septic infection. 



An exceptional complication is hernia of the intestines, through a 

 rupture in the uterus. It may be noted that in prolapsus uteri in the 

 Mare, it has happened that the colon has followed the fundus of the 

 organ, and become invaginated in the inverted sac. Funk also mentions 

 the case of a Bitch in which one of the cornua became inverted, and 

 prevented the expulsion of the remaining foetuses from the other cornu -, 

 thus necessitating the performance of the Caesarean section. 



Ayrault has, on three occasions, encountered an unusual complication 

 after reduction of the prolapsed organ, in the form of severe lameness, 

 with knuckling over of the two hind-fetlock joints, but without any artic- 

 ular swelling. This complication disappeared as the animals recovered 

 from inversion. 



T'rognosis. 



There can scarcely be any doubt that, if no assistance is rendered to 

 an animal suffering from prolapsus uteri, death must ensue, and more or 

 less speedily : as gangrene is inevitable, while spontaneous reduction is 

 impossible. 



In some instances death occurs in less than twenty-four hours, but 



