546 Veterinary Obstetrics 



of the fetus should be very deliberate and not hurried until the 

 buttocks of the young animal have appeared at the vulva and 

 have passed through it, thus dilating normally the entire length 

 of the passage. Then, when the critical moment has arrived, 

 the fetus should be promptly and carefully withdrawn in order 

 that it may not be suffocated . 



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It may be highly important to determine in a given case if the 

 fetus is alive or dead, because in a case of dystokia the question 

 of embryotomy may arise and, if one is so unfortunate as to 

 badly mutilate a fetus and then extract it from the mother in a 

 living condition, especially if it is highh' valued by the owner, 

 the error maj' become very embarrassing. 



It is frequently very difficult during labor to determine whether 

 the young animal is alive or dead, especially when it is firmly im- 

 pacted in the pelvis, where it has no power to move and no op- 

 portunity to breathe or to show other definite signs of life. Flem- 

 ing has asserted that fetor of the liquor amnii may not neces- 

 sarily show that the fetus has perished. Upon what grounds 

 such a statement is based we cannot comprehend, unless it be 

 that, because there is an odor present, it is called fetid. The 

 fetal fluids have a very marked and distinctive odor, which to the 

 experienced obstetrist has no suggestion of fetor, but is simply 

 the normal odor of a healthy liquid. In our experience, when 

 the fetal fluids are fetid there is no longer reason for doubt that 

 the fetus is dead, though admittedly the line of demarcation be- 

 tween a non-fetid and a fetid state of the fetal fluids is not always' 

 easily drawn. Any active movements of the fetus establish 

 clearly that it is living. 



When the fetus presents anteriorly, with the head protruded 

 through the vulva, and remains incarcerated for some time, the 

 head becomes engorged and swollen, the tongue swollen, blue- 

 black and protruding from the mouth, and the eyes glassy and 

 insensible. However, the conclusion is not to be hastily drawn 

 that it is dead ; on the other hand, it may be very much alive 

 and recover immediately and begin to move as soon as it is re- 

 leased from its perilous position. In fact, such engorgement of 

 the head and cyanosis of the visible mucosa show that the fetus 

 was alive when the head appeared. Had it been dead at the 

 beginning of labor, the engorgement could not have occurred. 



