74 BOVINE OBSTETlilCS 



put au end to this blood supply. However, at the moment 

 when this occurs respiration begins, which, when the amnion 

 is closed, induces deglutition of the amniotic fluid. After the 

 amniotic bladder has ruptured, the expulsive forces may be 

 assisted by gentle traction. 



Since it is hardly possible to pull sufficiently with the 

 hands on account of the slippery skin, ropes fastened to the 

 pasterns by means of a loop, and wrapped around a stick at its 

 free end to prevent them from cutting the hands, are employed. 

 Attention must be paid that no foetal envelopes enter between 

 the loop and the shinbone. 



How strong shall traction be and in which direction is it to 

 be exerted ? 



Many owners have the bad habit of opening the amniotic 

 bladder, and rope the fetlocks and extract the calf as soon as 

 the claws of the fore-legs appear at the vulva. There is no 

 reason for such hurry. Nor need one fear that the calf will 

 asphyxiate after the amniotic bladder ruptures ; but there is 

 danger to rupture the upper border of the vestibule when 

 traction is employed too early and too strongly. Only when 

 the muffle appears between the vulva may traction upon the 

 fore-legs be practiced. The force developed by one or two men 

 suffices in normal parturition. When the head is born, the act 

 of parturition ceases for a moment as the withers pass and as 

 the trochanteric diameter passes through the maternal pelvic 

 inlet. 



Primiparse at the age of two years often experience difficul- 

 ties as the trochanters of the calf pass between the cotyloid 

 cavities of the mother. Pelvimetry showed that the juvenile 

 pelvis is deficient in its transverse diameter of the pelvic canal. 



In which direction is traction to be exerted ? 



When traction is employed, it must be exerted in the same 

 direction in which expulsion takes place. As the calf enters 

 the pelvic canal, traction is to be exerted in the direction of 

 the os sacrum ; as it passes through the canal one pulls in the 

 opposite direction, while upward traction is indicated as the 

 calf leaves the genital passage. 



