8i8 Veterinary Obstetrics 



peritonitis and its accompaniments, are slow to become estab- 

 lished. It may be several days after parturition before they be- 

 come apparent, and the definite diagnosis may be made only upon 

 post-mortem examination. 



In one instance occurring in our clinic, the owner of a mare 

 had inhumanly drawn away a foal while the head was com- 

 pletely deviated to the side, and, in doing so, had caused a com- 

 plete rupture of the perineum. When the mare was presented 

 at our clinic because of this injury, the afterbirth was still re- 

 tained. This was removed, and the ruptured perineum was reg- 

 ularly cleansed and disinfected. xVlthough we had examined 

 the uterus carefully, we had failed to find any injury of its walls, 

 and concluded that we had only to deal with the retained 

 placenta and the ruptured perineum, but we were in error. The 

 mare perished three days after entrance into our clinic, under 

 symptoms of septic peritonitis. Upon post-mortem examination 

 there was revealed a small rupture of the uterus along the floor, 

 just anterior to the pubic brim and located upon the median line. 

 The opening was barely sufficient to admit the passage of a pen- 

 cil ; its edges w^ere necrotic ; and it could not be determined from 

 its appearance whether the rupture had been direct or complete 

 at the time of the dystokia or whether it had first consisted of a 

 contusion, which had been later followed by gangrene and a 

 sloughing of the uterine floor. Most probably it had at first con- 

 sisted of a contusion, the result of impingement of a uterine fold 

 betw^een the fetus and a bony prominence of the maternal pelvis, 

 during the inhuman forced extraction. 



In another instance occuring in our clinic, some stablemen had 

 delivered a cow without any anti.septic or other reasonable pre- 

 cautions, and the delivery was followed by retention of the pla- 

 centa. Though we removed this carefully and, as we believed, 

 judiciously, the cow exhibited the general symptoms of perito- 

 nitis, to which .she succumbed. A post-mortem examination re- 

 vealed a small perforation of the uterine floor, just in front of the 

 pubic brim, in the same position essentially as in the preceding 

 case of the mare. 



Again it was impossible to determine if the perforation was 

 immediate or .secondary. In each ca.se we were criticised be- 

 cau.se of the death of the patient. 



These ca.ses suggest the importance of care in examining the 



