732 Diseases of the Genital Organs 



The retained cotyledons can not be removed by any technic 

 at present known. If a rubber horse catheter can be success- 

 fully passed into the uterine cavity, the contents may be 

 diluted with saline solution and siphoned out. This can not 

 be done safely if the chorion is still attached. A small 

 amount of iodoform and bismuth (30 to 40 grains of each) 

 suspended in two to four ounces of liquid paraffin may be 

 introduced into the uterine cavity. Pituitrin may be tried 

 in small doses (10 to 20 drops) frequently repeated. 



The infections involving the fetus and the new-born lamb, 

 whatever may be their identity, cause approximately the 

 same lesions as already described in bovine fetuses and in 

 calves. A notable result, as in bovine fetuses and new-born 

 calves, is severe dysentery with gastro-intestinal lesions. 

 Carpenter, in his autopsies of fetuses which had perished 

 in utero, records essentially universal diarrhea. The amnio- 

 tic fluid contained meconium, showing that the fetus had 

 defecated — a distinctly pathologic act. This is illustrated 

 in Colored Plate VII, where pellets of meconium are shown 

 lying between the fetus and the amnion. The existence of 

 fetal dysentery was further shown by the presence of me- 

 conium in the stomachs of aborts, which location could be 

 reached only by the fetus having defecated and later swal- 

 lowed the meconium suspended in the amniotic fluids. Most 

 lambs born in the flock were thickly smeared over with me- 

 conium, indicating clearly that they had, as fetuses, suf- 

 fered from diarrhea. 



Except for the few Tunis lambs previously mentioned, 

 nearly all lambs born were weak and sick at birth. They 

 were extremely emaciated and were dull and weak. Cov- 

 ered as they were with meconium, they were often repulsive 

 to their dams. The ewes refused to lick their young, leaving 

 them befouled with meconium. Frequently they would not 

 permit the lambs to suck, but would butt them over when 

 they approached. The caretakers in many cases caught and 

 restrained the ewe each time that the lamb fed. 



These observations are interesting, because they possibly 

 throw light upon other instances where a dam refuses to 



