632 ACCIDENTS INCIDENTAL TO PARTURITION. 



yond the anus were excised as close as possible. The sphincter ani was dilated, the 

 parts in the rectum pushed through the rent in that viscus into the vagina, and with a 

 little assistance the remains of the foal were extracted by the vulva. The Mare received 

 opiate and laxative draughts, and soft diet. " Without entering into further details, the 

 animal was under my care for about a fortnight, when she was sold to a builder for 

 ;i^i8, and is at present working in a brick-cart, perfectly well." 



12. Hudson {Ibid., vol. xlv., p. 409), called to attend a case of difficult parturition in a 

 five-year-old Mare, with the first foal, found, on arrival, that the persons in attendance 

 had delivered the animal, and that during labor the head and neck of the foal had pro- 

 truded from the anus of the mother nearly as low as the hocks of the latter. When 

 first observed, one foot of the foal was protruding from the vagina, " with the other foot 

 pointing upwards towards the spine, and after pulling it downwards into position, the 

 next pain sent the head into the place which the foot had previously occupied, and a sec- 

 ond pain forced the head through the passage and out at the anus." The foal was alive, 

 but to effect delivery the head was cut off, which allowed the neck to be pushed back 

 into the vagina, and delivery to be accomplished. " The Mare looked anxious and un- 

 settled. Her head was held high, and she was paddling with the hind-legs, and whisk- 

 ing the tail occasionallv. The pulse and respiration were both somewhat quickened. 

 On an examination being made/^^r vaginam, I was enabled to pass my hand through a 

 large rent, and to touch the forefinger of the other hand, which I had passed into the 

 rectum." An anodyne and aperient bolus was administered, the animal ordered to be 

 kept quiet, the parts to be fomented and dressed with lard, and the fasces to be removed 

 if they accumulated. Next day the rectum was emptied, and an enema of warm water 

 administered. The injured parts were dressed with tincture of myrrh, and the mucous 

 membrane lubricated with lard. The appetite remained good. Next day there were 

 indications of congestion of the fore-feet, for which treatment was prescribed, and the 

 rectum was emptied and cleansed as before. Two days afterwards a small quantity of 

 fasces had passed into the vagina, and the following day there was much discharge, and 

 a piece of dead tissue hanging out of the vulva. Thirteen days after the accident, some 

 fascal pellets still dropped into the vagina, and this appeared to be the only incon- 

 venience. " The rent in the rectum has contracted considerably, and seems to be partly 

 arched over by a portion of the lining membrane projecting from the antero-inferior 

 part of the laceration. Posteriorly, the edge of the lesion feels now only just within the 

 anus, but there is not the slightest indication of union by healing." Soon afterwards the 

 Mare went to regular work. 



Rupture of the PERiNiEUM. 



Laceration of the vagina is not at all unfrequently complicated with 

 more or less extensive rupture of the perinaeum, and occasionally we may 

 meet with rupture of the vagina, rectum and perinasum in the same ani- 

 mal. Sometimes it is only the fourchette and superior commissure of the 

 vulva which are involved ; in others the entire extent of the perinseum is 

 lacerated, and the lesion only ends at the anal sphincter ; while in others, 

 again, the sphincter and part of the rectum are included. 



If, in malposition of the foetus, assistance is not timely afforded — and 

 particularly in the Mare — so as to correct the deviation, the young crea- 

 ture is pushed outwards by the violent uterine contractions, and if it en- 

 ters the rectum the anus is dilated ; while, if the expulsive efforts are con- 

 tinued, the sphincter and all the tissues between it and the vulva are 

 greatly stretched and strained until they tear. Then the foetus is finally 

 expelled — sometimes dead, at other times alive — and there remain the 

 most startling and immense lacerations which convert the rectum and 

 vagina into one vast opening, into whose cavity, as Saint-Cyr observes, 

 the termination of the digestive and genito-urinary organs open in com- 

 mon. 



These ruptures, immediately after birth, appear two or three times 

 larger than they are some days afterwards, when the distended textures 

 have contracted somewhat ; the borders of the laceration are sometimes 

 even, in other cases uneven, ragged and shreddy. 



