II. W^OUNDS AND INJURIES TO THE GENITAL 

 AND NEIGHBORING ORGANS. 



PosT-PARTUM Hemorrhage. 



Post-partum hemorrhage is comparatively rare in domestic 

 animals, and occurs chiefly in the larger species. In woman 

 hemorrhage following childbirth is very common as a result of 

 the highly developed and vascular placenta, but in domestic 

 animals, in which there are generally more or less diffuse pla- 

 centae of the disseminated or cotyledonous form, the conditions 

 are such that we rarely observe spontaneous placental hemorrhage. 

 In fact we have no definite records to show that serious placental 

 hemorrhage proper, occurs in animals, although slight hemor- 

 rhage from the placenta is quite commonly observed in the mare 

 and cow, and to a lesser degree in other domestic animals. 



The hemorrhages which occur during or immediately subse- 

 quent to parturition in domestic animals are generally due to 

 traumatic injury which is more or less independent of the pla- 

 centa, although it may naturally involve that structure. We 

 have already had occasion to mention, on page 457, that in rare 

 instances uterine hemorrhage occurs during gestation and may 

 with extreme rarity prove serious. 



During the act of giving birth to young, serious and fatal 

 hemorrhage is not exceedingly rare, especially in the mare, as a 

 result of a rupture of the uterine walls involving some of the 

 great vessels of the organ. Necessarily in the mare it involves 

 in the lesion the placenta itself, since this is distributed over the 

 entire organ . After the expulsion of the fetus, whether in the mare 

 or the cow, there frequently follows immediately a considerable 

 discharge of blood, which may be placental in origin, but which 

 is more probably due to the rupture of uterine vessels of con- 

 siderable size. The point of origin and the exact character of 

 such a hemorrhage is very rarely determined. 



After the fetus has been expelled, the rude removal of the fetal 

 membranes by laymen or empirics frequently induces profuse 

 hemorrhage, which may even end fatally. In the mare, if the 

 chorion is very firmly adherent to the uterus and violence is used 

 to bring about separation, the mucosa may be wounded to such a 

 degrefe as to cause profuse hemorrhage. In some cases of re- 



