560 Veterinary Obstetrics 



The two fetal ends of the umbilic arteries retract very 

 promptly toward and into the abdominal cavity, and in doing so 

 their cavities become decreased by the shortening and consequent 

 thickening of their walls, which tend to close them completely 

 and prevent hemorrhage. Additional security against bleeding 

 arises from the fact that, in retracting, they must draw back with 

 them the loose areolar tissue, which produces an impermeable 

 net- work of fibers just beyond their broken ends. The result is 

 well delineated at UA in Fig. 56, page 337. The ruptured um- 

 bilic veins, after some of their contained blood has escaped, col- 

 lapse and remain almost empty in the region of the umbilicus, 

 although still partially filled with blood in their course through 

 the abdominal cavity to the liver. 



The urachus is so intimately as.sociated with, and attached to, 

 the two umbilic arteries that it recedes into the abdominal cavity 

 to some extent, along with the latter. The Whartonian gelatine 

 surrounding the vessels in the cord loses almost its entire sub- 

 stance by its liquid portions slowly oozing out from the broken 

 surface of the cord, a process which is usually favored and accel- 

 erated by the licking of the stump of the cord by the mother, 

 which presses the fluid out by a sort of massage. 



Occa.sionally w^e meet with variations as to the promptness and 

 exact position of the rupture of the umbilic cord. Ca.ses have 

 been recorded where it has given way immediately against the 

 umbilicus, although these accidents are very rare and apparently 

 accompanied by little, if any, danger. A more common devia- 

 tion from the normal rupture of the cord is its giving way at a 

 point too remote from the abdomen, so that in some cases we find 

 the navel stump of the foal or calf 5 or 6 inches in length. This 

 leads to two dangers. The extra length of the cord prevents the 

 rapid escape of the Whartonian gelatine and also prevents the 

 retraction of the umbilic arteries from the exterior ; infection 

 and putrefaction occur in the cord, which may lead to an in- 

 flammation of the veins, arteries or urachus, and thereby greatly 

 imperil the life of the fetus. In other cases, when the cord is 

 too long, it may be trampled upon or become otherwise caught, 

 and the fetus, in struggling, may tear it away too clo.se to the 

 umbilicus and make a fresh wound, inviting infection. 



Two apparently conflicting courses are advised by different 

 veterinary obstetrists in reference to interference with the um- 

 bilic cord ; without and with ligation. 



