A HERDSMAN'S HANDBOOK FOR THE MODERN HOMESTEADER

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Beginning farmers usually do pretty well with gardens, chopping wood and building outhouses... but the birth of that first calf or litter of pigs generally sets 'em back a couple of notches, R.J. Holliday DVM, a , veterinarian in Missouri and MOTHER contributor, intends to remedy the situation. His tool? A new handbook precisely designed to explain all the animal facts of life in language that new back-to-the-landers can understand.

MOTHER is serializing the manual as Dr. Holliday cornpletes each chapter and here`s installment No. 2:

Before reading this section, it would be helpful to review Veterinary Obstetrics Part I in MOTHER No. 15.

the actual delivery of a calf (indeed, any young animal) invokes at least two factors of a purely mechanical nature. These factors must be understood before any attempt is made to forcibly extract a fetus. Failure to consider them can cause serious crippling or death to the mother and to the offspring, even though, the delivery may actually be accomplished by the excessive application of force

Except in some uncommon conditions, the soft tissues of the dam's birth canal can be stretched to accommodate almost and size calf. In similar fashion, the soft tissues of the fetus can be compressed to a considerable degree. Any problem that exists then must be thought of not only as a problem of relative size relationships but, also as a problem of aligning the skeleton of the fetus with the greatest diameter of the pelvic bones off the dam.

Figure 1 shows the position of the calf shortly before parturition begins. Figure 2 is a simplified side view of a normal pelvis. Note that the opening through the pelvis is slightly tipped. Thus, improperly applied traction forces the path of the fetus to follow line A while the normal path of the fetus should follow the curved path traced by Line B.

A cutaway view of the pelvis with a calf in the normal position for birth is illustrated in Figure 3. Note here that any traction applied in a direction corresponding to Line A. In figure 2 only serves to force the baby through the narrowest diameter of the pelvis, while a force in the direction of Line B in Figure 2 allows full utilization of tile greatest diameter of the pelvis by allowing the calf to follow the normal curvature of the birth canal.

The other mechanical factor of importance is the proper alignment of the spinal column, head and neck, and legs of the fetus so that their entry into the birth canal occurs in the correct sequence. Every effort should be made to insure that the fetus is in a natural position for birth and that any manipulations by the assistant do not contribute to the complications already present.

Let me repeat that two considerations must be borne in mind before and forced extraction is attempted (1) the direction of the pulling force must be compatible with the curvature of the birth canal and (2) the position and posture of the fetus and its appendages must be in proper alignment for delivery,

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