172 ‘The Management and Diseases of the Dog. 
SEPTIKEMIA PUERPERALIS. 
“Inflammation of the uterus and sepickemia puerperalis 
occur in all the domesticated animals. The latter would 
appear to be very frequent in the bitch.”* 
Parturient septikemia may arise from the retention and 
putrefaction of a dead fcetus,t or the introduction of putre- 
fying matter into the blood through inoculation. 
Symptoms.—Increase of temperature, rigors, hurried 
respiration, small frequent pulse, nose dry, mouth hot and 
slimy, visible mucous membranes injected, extremities soon 
become cold, coma speedily sets it, frequently accompanied 
'-- delirium, and death quickly follows. 
Post-mortem Exanination.—In those cases in which 
death has taken place, and an examination of the body has 
been made, the local and essential lesions are found in the 
genital organs and peritoneum, and when puerperal septi- 
keemia has been present, there are observed indications of 
general infection of the body. Decomposition sets in early, 
the tissues are dark-green and foetid, and meteorism is 
largely developed. 
“It is seldom, indeed, that the puerperal or septic 
inflammation is limited to the mucous membrane. Nearly 
always it extends to the submucous connective tissue 
(metritis phlegmonosa), which is infiltrated with an 
cedematous transudation ; or it becomes the seat of acute 
* Fleming’s “ Veterinary Obstetric,” p. 632. 
+ “It is well known that bitches which retain the foetus in the genital 
canal for any length of time (eighteen hours or therabouts), frequently 
perish from sepizkemia puerperalis. This appears to be due to the 
fact that the puppy so retained quickly dies : owing to the shortness of 
the umbilical cord, the early separation of the placenta, and birth 
taking place inthe amnion. The young creature also speedily putre- 
fies, and the large raw surface formed by the maternal placenta is a 
ready inlet for the direct introduction of the septic material into the 
blood. Speedy death of the bitch is the consequence.”—Fleming’s 
“ Veterinary Obstetrics,” p. 639. 
