EVERSION OF THE UTERUS IN COWS 
95 
so. There is usually not much straining after the eversion is 
complete until you come to reduce it. The general symptoms, 
if any, depend on the length of time since the accident occurred 
and are those of pain and uneasiness. 
Complicatio 7 is .—These usually arise from injuries, from neg¬ 
lecting the case by not sending for competent help in time or 
allowing ignorant and unskilled persons to attempt reduction. 
Or the animal may injure itself in the stable, or other cattle 
may tramp on it. They generally are lacerations, allowing the 
bladder and intestines to pass out. A case of this kind that I 
saw recently was in a cow not with calf. Before calving she 
had prolapsus of the vagina and after calving eversion of the 
uterus. These were treated and the cow did well, but was not 
bred again. About eight or nine months afterward she was 
found one morning in the stable with a prolapsed vagina, which 
was simply a mass of shreds, the bladder protruded, and about 
all the small intestines, it appeared to me, were out, hanging 
away below the hocks. My treatment for that case was to ask 
the farmer for his rifle and to shoot her. 
Prognosis .—Depends upon the length of time elapsing be¬ 
tween the occurence of the accident and time of treatment and 
upon the condition of the animal. Most cases, if treated 
promptly, and in a cow of fairly good constitution, not too old 
nor debilitated, will make good recoveries. I have seen cows so 
weak that they were unable to rise for three or four days make 
good recoveries. It seems to be a prevalent idea among people 
that having once occurred it is apt to recur every time the cow 
has a calf. But experience does not bear this out, as cows will 
frequently, after such an accident, again become pregnant and 
calve all right without a repetition of this trouble. 
Causes .—Pregnancy must be given a place as a cause, as it 
never happens except in breeding animals; in fact, can not 
happen except at time of labor or soon after, when the os is 
dilated. Difficult labor may cause it at times ; but we, all of us, 
have at times used much force in extracting the foetus and had 
no eversion, and we know that it happens after the easiest de- 
