DISEASES OF THE GENERATIVE ORGANS. 217 



The obvious remedy is to push the croup upward and forward and 

 extend the hind legs, and in the early stages this can usually be accom- 

 plished in the cow. A repeller (Plate xx, Fig. 7) is planted across the 

 thighs and pointed upward toward the spine of the cow, and pushed 

 forcibly in this direction during the intervals between labor pains. 

 Meanwhile the oiled hand seizes the shank just below the hock and 

 uses it as a lever, pushing back the body and drawing forward the foot, 

 thus effectually seconding the action of the repeller. Soon a distinct 

 gain is manifest, and as soon as the foot can be reached it is bent back 

 strongly at the fetlock, held in the palm of the hand and pulled up, 

 while the repeller, pressing on the buttocks, assists to make room for 

 it. In this way the foot may be brought safely and easily over the 

 brim of the pelvis without any risk of laceration of the womb by the 

 foot. After the foot has been lifted over the brim the whole limb can 

 be promptly and easily extended. In cases presenting special difficulty 

 in raising the foot over the brim, help may be had by traction on a rope 

 passed around in front of the hock, and later still by a rope with a noose 

 fastened to the pastern. In the worst cases, with the buttocks and 

 hocks wedged deeply ink) the passages, it may prove difficult or impossi- 

 ble to push the buttocks back into the abdomen, and in such a case the 

 extension of the hind limb is practically impossible without mutilation. 

 In some roomy cows a calf may be dragged through the passages by 

 ropes attached to the bent hocks, but even when this is possible there 

 is great risk of laceration of the floor of the vagina by the feet. The 

 next resort is to cut the hamstring just below the point of the hock and 

 the tendon on the front of the'limb (flexor metatarsi) just above the 

 hock, and even the sinews behind the shank bone just below the hock. 

 This allows the stifle and hock to move independently of each other, the 

 one undergoing extension without entailing the extension of the other; 

 it also allows both joints to flex completely, so that the impacted mass 

 can pass through a narrower channel. If now, by dragging on the 

 hocks and operating with the repeller on the buttocks, the latter can 

 be tilted forward sufficiently to allow of the extension of the stifle, the 

 jam will be at once overcome, and the calf may be extracted with the 

 hock bent, but the stifle extended. If even this can not be accom- 

 plished it may now be possible to extract the whole mass with lx>th 

 hocks and stifles fully bent. To attempt this, traction may bo made on 

 the rope around the hocks and on a sharp hook (Plate xx, Fig. 2) passed 

 forward between the thighs and hooked on to the brim of the pelvis. 

 Everything else failing, the offending limb or limbs may be cut off at 

 the hip joint and extracted, after which extraction may proceed by 

 dragging on the remaining limb, or by hooks on the hip bones. Very 

 little is to be gained by cutting off the limb at the hock, and the stifle 

 is less accessible tlrin the hip, and amputation at the.stifle gives much 

 poorer results. 



