Confusing Findings in Examination for Pregnancy 139 



d. Extensive pyometra has caused colleagues of consid- 

 erable experience to diagnose pregnancy. In one instance, 

 pregnancy had been diagnosed in a well-bred cow. She was 

 sold at a high figure and shipped a long distance. She was 

 finally returned by the purchaser at heavy cost. When I ex- 

 amined her, I siphoned out 3 to 4 gallons of a thin, very 

 fetid pus. In another instance, a heifer purchased as preg- 

 nant, having gone beyond her supposed duration of preg- 

 nancy, was examined and a macerating fetus diagnosed. I 

 siphoned out about 13 liters of a very thin, odorless, yellow 

 pus. In each case there was no observable purulent dis- 

 charge, though the cervical canal was freely open. The 

 uterus lay far forward (neither colleague had applied for- 

 ceps and drawn the uterus back) and, finding it distended to 

 the volume of six months or more pregnant, the colleague in 

 . each case erred and diagnosed pregnancy. The uterus was 

 too fiaccid for pregnancy and its walls were too thick. When 

 traction was applied and the uterus drawn backward and 

 upward until the entire organ was in reach, it was per- 

 fectly clear no large fetus or fetal cadaver was present. 



It is true that often the gravid uterus drops far downward 

 and forward, especially in old cows with pendant bellies, 

 but fetal cotyledons are in reach even if the fetus is not. 

 The veterinarian should also seek evidence from the uterine 

 arteries. Pyometra cannot cause an enlargement of the 

 arteries at all comparable with the enlargement of preg- 

 nancy. 



e. Cystic Uterus. The uterus of the cow occasionally be- 

 comes cystic and causes the veterinarian to err in diagnos- 

 ing pregnancy. There may be five to ten gallons of lymph 

 or thin mucus in the uterine cavity, the organ dropped far 

 forward and very flaccid. There is no recognizable dis- 

 charge. The cervical canal is usually free. 



In another group of cases, there is a blocking of the cervi- 

 cal canal owing to one of the annular mucous folds acting 

 as a valve to retain menstrual debris. This causes a tense 

 filling of the uterus which is much like pregnancy, but the 

 uterine seal is ordinarily absent, there is probably no corpus 

 luteum typical of pregnancy, the arteries are not enlarged, 

 and the two uterine horns are distended alike. 



