54 
PURE BRED DRAFT HORSES 
flabby with a moderate amount of thickening, or they are tense and at 
some place an abscess of the uterus may point, or the organ is very 
dense, with thick, hard walls. 
“As pregnancy advances, additional evidences appear. The organ be¬ 
comes very greatly enlarged, the walls are tense and the fetal fluids are 
quite readily recognized as such . . . The fetus becomes increas¬ 
ingly easy of recognition as pregnancy advances. In some cases, how¬ 
ever, both fetus and uterus fall forward into the abdomen and may be 
beyond the reach of the examiner. In such cases there is still good evi¬ 
dences of pregnancy. The vagina is drawn far forward, the cervix has 
been dragged anterior to the pubis, and the posterior end of the uterus 
constitutes a large, thick, firmly stretched band passing downward and 
forward beyond the examiner’s reach. This of itself does not indicate 
pregnancy with absolute certainty, because the same displacement of 
the uterus might occur from the presence of large uterine tumors or 
from other pathologic conditions which would cause an increased weight 
of the organ, possibly dragging it downward and forward. In this 
emergency, however, other signs appear to aid the examiner in makng 
his diagnosis. As a general rule in such cases, the diagnosis can be 
verified by abdominal ballotement, and also by palpation of the enormous¬ 
ly enlarged uterine arteries. 
“Palpation of the Fetus per Vaginum or per Rectum. When pregnancy 
is well advanced, the fetus . . . may usually be felt upon rectal pal¬ 
pation, though not always in early pregnancy. Up to the fourth month, 
the fetus ordinarily lies upon the floor of the uterus and cannot, without 
undue violence, be palpated through its surrounding fluids. Even at the 
fifth or sixth month, or later, the fetus may have dropped so far forward 
and downward in the abdominal cavity that it cannot be palpated from 
the rectum. Later, however, the fetus becomes so large that a portion of 
it necessarily projects up near or into the pelvis, where it is readily felt. 
Palpation of the fetus per vaginum has a very limited application. It 
generally succeeds during the last months of pregnancy. At this time 
in many cases, some portions of the fetal body, usually the head and the 
two anterior feet, rest upon the vagina posterior to the os uteri esternum, 
occasionally giving the inexperienced examiner the impression of extra- 
uterine pregnancy. 
“Abdominal Ballotement. After the sixth month of pregnancy, the 
buttocks or other portions of the fetus usually lie in close contact with 
the abdominal floor of the lower right flank regions. If the hand is 
placed firmly against the abdominal wall, a somewhat vigorous thrust 
made upward, and then suddenly the force released, but the hand kepi 
in contact with the abdominal wall, the adjacent portion of the fetus is 
pushed away upwards in its fluids, floats for a moment, and then drops 
back against the examiner’s hand with a recognized impact. This is a 
good sign of pregnancy, but not always reliable. In many cases no por¬ 
tion of the fetus chances to lie in sufficiently close contact with the ab¬ 
dominal wall to render the test efficient. On the other hand a tumor or 
a very large and heavy calculus might mislead the examiner when the 
animal is really sterile. 
“Auscultation of the Fetal Heart. In the advanced stage of pregnancy 
it is frequently possible, by careful auscultation of the abdominal walls 
over the region of the fetus, to detect the beat of the fetal heart, which 
is usually at least twice as rapid as the beat of the maternal heart. 
“The abdominal ballotement and the ausculation of the fetal heart are 
of minor value, because when these can be successfully applied the 
other signs which have been enumerated above should already have 
decided the question long before these signs, however good they may be, 
can come into play. 
“The physical diagnosis of pregnancy is not dependent upon any one 
