Flexion of Anterior Limbs at Carpus 759 



We consequent!}^ regard this deviation as being usually a per- 

 sistence of the pre-parturient attitude of the limb of the fetus, 

 and not as an acquired deviation of the part. Consequently we 

 may well find both anterior limbs flexed at the carpus, and the 

 head of the fetus flexed ventralward, with its chin resting up- 

 on the sternum. This attitude of the fetus is especially frequent 

 in cases of abortion in the mare, where the dead fetus quite fre- 

 quently presents by the poll and the two carpal joints. 



Sometimes one foot presents normally, along with the head ; 

 sometimes the head only ; and sometimes one anterior foot only. 

 Any one of these suggests at once that there is either a flexion 

 of the carpus which checks delivery, or else that the anterior 

 limb has been completely retained. It is thus essential to diag- 

 nosis that a manual examination be made. 



In the mare and cow the retention of the anterior limbs at the car- 

 pus usually constitutes an insurmountable obstacle to parturition, 

 except artificial assistance is given. Saint-Cyr properly suggests 

 that the dystokia does not result so much from the flexion of the 

 carpus itself as it does because all the long bones of the anterior limb 

 are flexed upon each other and the entire mass of the shoulder 

 and limb is pushed backward upon the chest walls, to abnormally 

 increase the tran.sverse and perpendicular diameters of this por- 

 tion of the body and render it so gross that it cannot pass through 

 the birth canal without the deviation being first corrected. 



The indications are to secure the deviated limb or limbs and 

 to bring them into their normal position. The position of the 

 fetus is usually dorso-sacral, but, should it be dorso-pubic or 

 dorso-ilial, the same general rules for the correction of the de- 

 viation apply in the main, and in many respects are actually easier 

 than though the fetus were in the normal or dorso-sacral position. 



I. Mutation. In order to bring about the extension of the 

 limb or limbs, repulsion of the fetus is necessary. If the head of the 

 fetus, with or without one anterior limb, has advanced only a short 

 distance along the pelvJc canal, it may be quite practicable to push it 

 back into the uterus and acquire room for the correction of the de- 

 viation in the abdominal cavity. If the fetus is very small, or the 

 pelvis of the mother quite roomy, it may be possible to repel the 

 fetus after its head has passed completely beyond the vulva, but 

 this generally proves very difficult, and frequently impossible. If 

 the fetus is dead, which is generally the case with the foal, and 



