730 Diseases of the Genital Org a7is 



No definite line of treatment has become established. If 

 it can be determined that the fetus is alive, it may be desira- 

 ble to try to retain the cervix within the vagina. It should 

 be kept clean and parturition awaited. The retention may 

 be secured by the vulvar sutures shown in Fig. 60 for vagi- 

 nal hernia of cows. Securely retained and protected from 

 soiling and the irritation of drying in the air, the cervix 

 may be kept clean and soothed by means of irrigations with 

 salt solution or with bland oils. This may relieve the cervi- 

 citis and the induration, causing the cervix to relax and the 

 uterus to expel its contents. It may be attempted, with 

 some hope of success, to cause contraction of the uterus with 

 dilation of the cervix by small repeated doses of pituitary 

 extract. These failing, gastrohysterotomy may be employed, 

 as described for the cow, and the uterine contents removed 

 surgically. 



Retained Fetal Membranes. The metritis which sometimes 

 results in abortion in the ewe tends also to cause retention 

 of the fetal membranes. The character of the cotyledons in 

 the ewe alters notably the type of the placental retention. 

 In the cow the cotyledons are intimately attached to the 

 chorion over a large area, so that the two tissues do not 

 readily tear apart. The fetal cotyledons of the cow may be 

 described as sessile; the maternal cotyledons are distinctly 

 pedunculate. This is reversed in the ewe : the maternal pla- 

 centa is essentially sessile, while the fetal placenta is dis- 

 tinctly pedunculate, with a long, slender pedicle. In the 

 cow the pedicle of the maternal cotyledon often parts and the 

 maternal placenta falls away ; in the ewe the pedicle of the 

 fetal cotyledon quickly parts, and the chorion and amnion 

 drop away, leaving the spherical fetal cotyledons (See Figs. 

 31, 32) incarcerated in the chalice-like cavity of the mater- 

 nal cotyledon, as shown in Fig. 214 and in Colored Plate VII. 



It is only in a minority of cases of retained placenta in the 

 ewe that the chorion and amnion are included in the reten- 

 tion. Usually, therefore, the retention is not evidenced by 

 the membranes protruding from the vulva. Such cases are 

 observed, but are usually of short duration. So long as the 



