DISEASES FOLLOWING PARTURITION. 



By JAMES LAW, F. R. C. V. S., 

 Professor of Veterinary Science, etc., in Cornell Unirersif:,. 



FLOODING BLEEDING FROM THE WOMB. 



Though not so common in the cow as in the human female, flooding 

 is sufficiently frequent to demand attention. It may depend on a too 

 rapid calving, and a consequent failure of the womb to contract when 

 the calf has been removed. The pregnant womb is extraordinarily rich 

 in blood- vessels, and especially in large and tortuous veins, which 

 become compressed and all but obliterated under contraction, but remain 

 overfilled and often bleed into the cavity of the womb should no con- 

 traction take place. Cox records cases in which the labor pains had 

 detached and expelled the fetal membranes, while the calf, owing to 

 large size or wrong presentation, was detained in the womb, and the 

 continued dilatation of the womb in the absence of the fetal membranes 

 led to a flow of blood which accumulated in clots around the calf. 

 Other causes are laceration of the cotyledons of the womb, or from an 

 antecedent inflammation of the placenta, and the unnatural adhesion of 

 the membranes to the womb, which bleeds when the two are torn apart. 

 Weakness of the womb from overdistension, as in dropsy, twins, etc., is 

 not without its influence. Finally, eversion of the womb (casting the 

 withers) is an occasional cause of flooding. The trouble is only too evi- 

 dent when the blood flows from the external passages in drops or in a 

 fine stream. But when it is retained in the cavity of the womb it may 

 remain unsuspected until it has rendered the animal almost bloodless. 

 The symptoms in such a case are paleness of the eyes, noso, mouth, ami 

 of the lips of the vulva, a weak rapid pulse, violent and perhaps loud 

 Ix.iating of the heart (palpitations), sunken, staring eyes, coldness of the 

 skin, ears, horn*, and limbs, perspiration, weakness in standing, stag 

 goring gait, and finally inability to rise, and death in convulsions. If 

 these symptoms arc seen the oiled hand should be introduce*! into tin- 

 womb, which will be found open and flaccid, and containing large blood 

 clots. 



Treatment consists in the removal of tin- fetal membranes ami blood 

 clots from the womb (which will not contract while they are present), 



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