868 Veterinary Obstetrics 



slipping in attempting to rise. Furthermore, it is desirable, as 

 far as practicable, to aid the animal by lifting upon the tail 

 whenever she wishes to get up, unless she can accomplish the act 

 unaided with comparative ease and safety. Slings may be ap- 

 plied should conditions require, but it is preferable to avoid 

 them. Should indications warrant it, the veterinarian may 

 apply electricity by placing one of the poles of the battery over 

 the lumbar region and moving the other over the surface of the 

 atrophied gluteal muscles. 



According to our observations, the prognosis is highly favor- 

 able. The paralysis disappears in the course of a few days to 

 two or three weeks. At the same time the atrophy is increasing, 

 but from this the animal tends to recover completely in from 6 

 to 1 8 months, and in the meantime may do light work if desired. 



b. Contusion of the Obturator Nerves. Obturator 

 Paralysis. 



The obturator nerve is subject to injury from the fetus, at its 

 point of passage over the eminence of the lumbo-sacral articula- 

 tion and again at the point where it rounds the lip of the obtur- 

 ator foramen. 



The symptoms of this accident are acute and unique. They 

 consist essentially of a loss of power in the obturator group of 

 muscles, which include all of the adductors of the limb — the ob- 

 turator externus, the adductors of the thigh, the pectineus and 

 the short adductor of the leg. 



It matters not, so far as symptoms are concerned, if the nerve 

 is injured at its point of emergence from the spinal canal or of 

 its disappearance through the obturator foramen. If one nerve 

 only is contused, the animal is able to progress with some diffi- 

 culty, but the affected limb is held in extreme abduction, though 

 the power of bearing weight or of advancement is not interrupted. 

 In advancing the limb, it is brought forward in extreme abduc- 

 tion, and is placed upon the ground some inches laterally to the 

 normal point of bearing. 



If both obturators are simultaneously injured, the symptoms 

 assume an entirely different phase. Both limbs now become 

 sharply abducted, the animal is unable to support its weight, the 

 two hind feet slip apart, and the animal drops upon its pubis. If 

 assisted to its feet, and the hind limbs are held in adduction, the 



