768 Veterinary Obstetrics 



the mother, the nostrils and commissure of the lips offer a secure 

 hold for the finger of the operator or for the insertion of a blunt 

 hook, and this hold may prove of value until the head has turned 

 somewhat. 



In the correction of this deviation it will often prove highly 

 advantageous to place a repeller securely against the chest of the 

 fetus and have an assistant maintain constant repulsion, thus 

 keeping the body of the fetus pushed away from the pelvic inlet 

 in a manner to insure to the operator the greatest amount of room 

 for manipulating the head. 



In the bitch, cat and ewe, the patient maybe more or less sus- 

 pended by the hind legs, the vagina filled with a warm, unctuous 

 fluid, and the fetus repelled, partly by gravity, partly by the pres- 

 sure of the fluids, aided by shaking the animal, by pushing upon 

 the fetal limbs or by means of a finger-tip placed against the 

 chest. When repulsion has been accomplished, the operator 

 may locate the fetal head through the abdominal wall, and by ex- 

 ternal manipulation push it upward (the patient being suspended 

 by the hind feet j toward the vulva, while a finger or fingers in- 

 serted in the vulva aid in adjusting the head in proper position, 

 after which traction may be applied. 



2. Forced extraction has been advised in the mare by some 

 veterinary obstetrists, and a few of them have reported good re- 

 sults by this method. It has been suggested by some that by 

 this means it is possible to save a foal, though we have been un- 

 able to find a record of so fortunate an occurrence. 



The plan of forced extraction has already been described on 

 page 640. We have not had occasion to apply this method of 

 delivery in the mare or other animal, but we have observed a con- 

 siderable number of instances in which others have done so, and 

 have learned definitely of but one instance in this country where 

 the life of the mare has been saved, and none where the fetus has 

 not perished. In European countries there are a number of rec- 

 ords of successful deliveries of mares, in these cases of dystokia, 

 by forced extraction. 



There was entered in our clinic a mare from which a fetus in 

 this position had been extracted by force. Her perineum was 

 completely ruptured, the afterbirth was retained, she was very 

 weak and exhausted, and presented a repulsive and pitiable sight. 

 The afterbirth was removed, and the ruptured perineum was dis- 



