6i6 ACCIDENTS INCIDENTAL TO PARTURITION. 



prove fatal. Elmue (Canstatt's yahresbericht, 1859) relates an occurrence 

 of this description. 



In desperate cases, when reduction cannot be effected, or when the 

 organ is so much injured that reposition is almost certain to be followed 

 by death, amputation may be ventured upon with some prospect of suc- 

 cess. 



With regard to the operation, Cartwright remarks : " It is to be 

 observed that the ureters enter the substance of the neck of the bladder 

 obliquely towards its sides, but their orifices are to be seen when the 

 bladder is inverted, and the Cow or Mare is standing up, at the upper 

 surface of the viscus, about half an inch apart. To detect them, we 

 must draw the bladder sufficiently down, so that we may be able to in- 

 spect the parts. Where they enter, the inner membrane (now the ureter) 

 will have a soft and jelly-like protuberant appearance, in the middle of 

 which will be detected two very small openings of a nipple-like shape. 

 To be certain that we have hit upon them, we may introduce a probe, 

 and pass it down towards the suspended fundus. Having discovered the 

 orifice of the ureters, and passed a ligature around the neck of the blad- 

 der below them, we have nothing more to do than occasionally tighten 

 it, so as to effect complete strangulation and sloughing of the body of 

 the bladder ; though, as soon as we find it dead, we may, to save time, 

 cut it away with a scalpel. We should also, after having applied the 

 ligature, puncture the distended fundus ; since its great weight may cause 

 a dragging and inflammation about its cervix, or may force the ligature 

 over the mouth of the ureters, which would occasion the death of the an- 

 imal. After the separation has taken place, the remaining portion will 

 contract within the vagina, and the cavity will be closed by the vulva. 

 The urine will generally ever after run down the thighs, excoriating 

 them ; though in other cases the fluid will accumulate within the vulva, 

 and be from time to time ejected in large quantities." 



When excision is not resorted to, spontaneous amputation may take 

 place. 



When the inversion or prolapsus is complicated by rupture of the floor 

 of the vagina, then the accident is of the most serious character, though 

 not invariably fatal in its results. » 



1. Riviere {Journal de Med. Veterinaire de Lyon, 1867, p. 236) reports the case of a 

 Cow which had a laborious delivery, in consequence of lateral deviation of the head of 

 the foetus, and manual aid was necessary. The foetus was very large., and soon after it 

 was extracted the envelopes came away ; but in about a quarter of an hour very violent 

 straining ensued, and almost immediately a quantity of reddish fluid flowed from the 

 vulva, followed by a tumor as large as a child's head. A careful inspection proved this 

 tumor to be formed by the fundus of the bladder, and a manual exploration discovered, 

 on the floor of the vagina, a long slit through which the organ had passed. When this 

 laceration took place, was not known ; but the owner of the. Cow had attempted to de- 

 liver it the previous evening, and had, as he thought, pierced the "water bag." The 

 bladder was full of urine, so it could not be returned, nor yet could it be emptied by 

 pressure on its surface. 



The contents were removed by a hastily-devised catheter, made of a piece of elder- 

 tree deprived of its pith. When the urine was abstracted, reduction was easy, and the 

 Cow recovered in less than twenty days. 



2. Canu {Mem. de la Societe VetSrinaire dit Calvados, 1835) was requested to see a 

 Mare that half an hour previously, had given birth to a foal without any difficulty. He 

 found the animal lying on its left side, straining violently, covered with perspiration, 

 and a membranous-looking substance hanging from the vulva, which led to the suspi- 

 cion that inversion of the uterus or vagina had taken place. The owner said that he 

 had been for a long time attempting to return this membrane, but had failed. Canu 



