564 ACCIUEKTS AFTER PAliTURITIOX. 



BOOK IV. 



ACCIDENTS AFTEE PAETURITION. 



The accidents occurring subsequently to parturition are rather diverse, 

 and not infrequently complicate the difficulties already alluded to as 

 hindering natural birth. They may occur either during parturition, 

 immediately after delivery, or within a few days subsequent to that 

 event. 



In addition to the accidents, there are diseases which appear during 

 the puerperal period ; though the distinction between them and the 

 former is not always easy to establish. 



Some of the complications just alluded to may succeed a perfectly 

 normal delivery, or an accidental abortion, as well as a difficult birth. 



The accidents consecutive to or accompanying parturition, may be 

 enumerated as follows : (1) Betentionof tJie fci'tal envelopes in the uterus, 

 and its consequences ; (2) Post j^di'tum hcemorrhage from the genital 

 organs; (3) Displacement or hernia of one or more of the internal genital 

 organs through the vulva; (4) Traumatic lesions of the genital or neigh- 

 bouring organs. 



Some of these accidents are either very serious in themselves or in 

 their consequences, and require the greatest skill to remedy ; or they 

 are comparatively trifling, and easily repaired. 



CHAPTEE I. 

 Retention of the Fcetal Envelopes. 



The retention of the foetal envelopes, placenta, "secundines," or "after- 

 birth," beyond a certain time after the expulsion of the fostus from the 

 uterus, must be looked upon as an accidental or pathological condition 

 which requires attention. It has been already shown that the placenta 

 is usually shed or expelled soon after the young creature is born, and 

 particularly with such animals as the Mare, Sow, and Bitch, the 

 placenta of which is diffused or zonular ; indeed, with multiparous 

 animals — as the two latter — the placenta of each foetus is extruded 

 soon after its birth, by the succeeding foetus ; so that if retention occurs 

 at all, it is only the last, or the two last placentae which remain in the 

 cornua of the uterus. 



With Euminant animals, however, retention is far from rare ; though 

 even in them there is a difference in this respect, according to species 

 — the accident being much more frequent in the Cow than in the Sheep 

 or Goat. This frequency in Euminant animals is doubtless due to the 

 peculiar formation of their placentae — the cotyledonal arrangement being 

 evidently opposed to ready separation. 



But if the Cow is the animal of all others in which this accident 

 occurs, it is also the one which appears to be the least inconvenienced 

 by it ; for it is not uncommon to see Cows which four, six, eight, and 

 even ten or twelve days after parturition, have not got rid of the 

 placenta, and yet are lively, the appetite is unimpaired, and they con- 



