Rupturing Cysts per Vaginam 209 



2. The Rupture of the Cysts Per Vaginam. 



For a long time we have, in addition to the rupturing of ovar- 

 ial cysts per rectum, also practiced rupturing them per vaginam, 

 an experience devoid of danger throughout, easil}' accomplished 

 and accompanied by excellent results. 



The operation per vaginam is to be recommended in all those 

 cases where ovarial cysts cannot be easil}' and safely ruptured 

 per rectum. In this regard it is to be preferred in all those cases 

 of peripheral cysts with thick walls, such as usually form in 

 dumb bullers, "stillochsigkeitt," and also in old, recurrent, 

 thick- walled cysts, as well as in multiple and central cysts. Like- 

 wise, it constitutes an excellent method for dislodging very firmly 

 embedded hypertrophied corpora lutea which require removal. 



The operation is uniformly possible in cows of the spotted and 

 brown breeds so long as the vulva and vagina are free from 

 strictures and also in large two-year-old heifers with sound vag- 

 inae it succeeds almost without exception if certain precautions 

 are observed. Palpation per vaginam is difficult or impossible 

 in heifers with fresh vaginitis follicidaris infectiosa, in heifers 

 and cows which have been handled for this disease with power- 

 fully irritant or caustic remedies ; also in animals with strictures 

 or adhesions of the vagina, to which there is almost uniformly a 

 well marked tendency after vaginal injections of a 2% pyoktanin 

 solution in a vagina affected with infectious nodular disease ; and 

 finally in two or three-year-old animals which have aborted dur- 

 ing the first half of pregnancy or have suffered from placental 

 retention and whose vaginae have been irritated and lacerated by 

 palpations by inexperienced and incompetent persons. 



Besides the customary precautions, palpation of the genital 

 organs demands a thorough oiling of the vulva and the hand. 

 The hand, usually the right, which is naturally the stronger, is 

 then gently pushed through the vulva with a rotary motion 

 until it reaches the os uteri externum. After the right hand has 

 been successfully introduced, the left can then readily be in- 

 serted without special difficulty. After completing the examina- 

 tion of the vagina, the manual displacement of the ovary is car- 

 ried out. Following the grasping of the cyst per rectum it is 

 then pushed backwards with the right hand and held down- 

 14 



