INJURIES AND INFLAMMATION OF THE VULVA, ETC. 
425 
muco-sanguineous fluid collects behind the obstruction. Occlusion from 
imperforate hymen is of little consequence, as it can readily be cured, 
but extensive union between the opposed vaginal walls is a serious 
matter. 
A case of the former kind in an Ayrshire “ grey ” was cured by incision. 
The animal had shown a temperature of 104-5° F., and severe abdominal pain. 
Four pints of offensive fluid were evacuated. (Cadiot and Dollar’s “ Clinical 
Veterinary Medicine and Surgery,” p. 424.) 
Geyer noticed occlusion of the vagina in three calves two to three weeks 
after birth; in two cases it was possible to break down the adhesions. After 
the discharge of several quarts of a reddish, turbid, ill-smelling fluid, Geyer 
washed out the vagina with 1 per cent, creolin solution; recovery followed. 
In the third calf the entrance to the vagina was too narrow to admit even a 
single finger. After repeatedly passing the trochar, the animal was fattened 
for slaughter. 
Schmidt describes a calf which eight days previously had been bulled, and 
had immediately bled freely ; the vagina was closed by a membrane in front 
of the opening of the urethra. Excessive dilatation of the vagina rendered 
the passage of faeces difficult. After perforating the membrane with a trochar, 
increasing the opening with the finger and hand, and washing out the parts 
with creolin solution, healing occurred in fourteen days. In this case also 
four to five quarts of a whitish, ill-smelling fluid were discharged. The 
hymen was probably unusually resistant. 
Wounds of the vagina in cows are commonest after prolapse or after 
parturition, especially in primiparae. Sometimes the surface alone is 
injured or the mucous membrane excoriated, though deep tears in the 
tissues, and even perforating wounds of the vagina, are also seen, 
particularly in the large animals. More than one observer has seen 
perforating wounds of the vagina caused by the penis of the stallion 
during coitus. It must be remembered in these cases that the posterior 
part of the vagina is surrounded by loose connective tissue, which 
connects it above with the rectum, and below with the os pubis. In the 
mare, this connection extends about 5 inches in a forward direction, and 
below for a rather longer distance. Perforating vaginal wounds, there¬ 
fore, lie farther forward, and must always be regarded as serious, both 
on account of the danger of peritonitis and of prolapse of the bowel. In 
mares, peritonitis is most to be feared. Prolapse of the bowel is 
particularly favoured by straining, which is almost always present after 
such injuries, and by the entrance into the peritoneal cavity of air, which 
sometimes causes very great distension. 
Hemorrhage is less grave, unless blood passes through a perforating 
wound into the peritoneal sac, where it decomposes, and leads to purulent 
peritonitis. Surface injuries require attention only in pregnant animals, 
in which decomposed infectious substances, always developed in the 
after-birth, readily initiate such disease as septic metritis. The danger 
is greater in summer than in winter, particularly if the after-birth 
