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so we were talking sheep/goat dystocia...

dystocia is a 
major cause of perinatal mortality; more common in ewes than does in our 
practice; very common though. in sheep, hopefully you can keep it under 
10% in flock. 

etiology: 
fetopelvic disproportion is rare except in 
pygmy goats it is the most common cause of dystocia.

maldisposition/malpresentation of fetus - very common in dairy goats and 
sheep
ringwomb - basically, failure to dilate cervix - one ring fails to 
dilate
uterine inertia not common
uterine torsion very uncommon
(ewe 
early dilation syndrome - may be a manifestation of ringwomb, ignore)


other causes - siamese twins - head very broad, four front and four rear 
legs, pelvises attached, one torso. this ewe had a live lamb behind this!

other fetal monsters - sometimes you get them out whole, sometimes you 
have to cut them up.

diagnosis:
1 1/2 hours of active straining per 
textbook. really, wait 1/2 hour before checking via vaginal exam. reach 
in and feel what's going on. 
active labor ceases
stage I longer than 12 
hrs
over an hour b/w fetuses
if no fetus 15 min after entering stage 2, 
probably you should check.
if you do a vaginal exam and THINK it's a 
dystocia, and cervix really just isn't dilated yet, you'll have problems 
if you try to rush things. the vagina only dilates when the head is 
starting to come down. 


ringwomb cases require c section or cerviotomy 
(which makes them infertile). when you see this in sheep, probably go 
ahead and cut the cervix, because if you do the c-section it's expensive 
and ringwomb may recur next time. so you do cerviotomy, then cull the 
ewe. to do it, snip the tight band at dorsal midline area of cervix, or 
rupture manually with finger. she'll bleed a little but not too much. 
this is just for sheep, not goats - goats do not tolerate it well, act 
like it is very painful, it's not good for the goats. but it is fine for 
sheep, they deliver live lambs and act nonpainful. 

when handling these 
animals be clean and gentle -uterus not as tough as cow.
pygmy goats have 
very high rates of dystocia - up to 60%. you can tell the clients about 
how to breed differently to avoid this problem but apparently these goats 
that do not kid normally are prizewinners in the show ring. one herd near 
here has 70% c-section rate; these uterine inertia problems do seem 
heritable. if you are size 7 glove or larger, you can't manually examine 
pygmy goats. plus the uterus ruptures really easily. b/c sometimes 
clients wait 2-3 hrs to bring goat in, pygmy goats strain really really 
hard, uterus has a lot of pressure on it, the goats are very small. must 
be really really gentle. you can make a lot of money doing c-sections, 
though. if you work for 15 minutes on pygmy dystocia and no progress, go 
immediately to c-section (other goats - give it 1/2 hr or so).


Treatment:

be gentle, clean, use lots of lube, always scrub first
thin 
walled uterus, more prone to rupture
subcu embryotomy
c-section

goats 
are noisy in labor - they will tell you when they are in stage 1 - noisy, 
sniffing, moving around, sometimes if you do a vaginal exam they think 
your hand is the kid and they chase you. 
gloves - good to prevent q 
fever; up to you. someone to hold the tail is a help. be gentle - extrude 
head and legs, pull down toward hocks. once out, hold it upside down, 
clean crap off its face. hang upside down x 30 sec so blood goes to the 
brain. 

[this is all in the handout so I'm not taking good notes. ]


with head-back presentations, you usually need to use a snare - coated 
wire to grab the head and pull it around without strangling it.headbacks 
are really common in pygmy goats. turning them around isn't good. use 
lamb snare. 

Pygmy goats - you can pull them out by the head; you don't 
always have an emergency when the head comes out and it gets stuck. 


retained placenta - not a big deal
more serious than in the cow, less 
than in horse
can result in systemic toxemia 
retained if after 12 hrs

just treat with abx though. they do fine on penicillin. if uncomfortable, 
give some banamine. make sure current on tetanus vax. oxytocin, pgf2a may 
help early on but she doesn't really use it, just tx abx and wait for 
placenta to drop, continue abx x 3-4 days

vaginal prolapse - common in 
sheep
pain in the ass
usually prepartum, sometimes postpartum even more 
pain in the neck
tends to recur
rectum may prolapse with it

cause: 
excess abdominal fill, lax perineal tissue, excess estrogen, hereditary 
factor. if flock affected, check feed for clover, moldy corn. cull 
affected sheep - runs in families.

tx 
epidural anesthesia - hard to do 
in sheep
replace, +/- suture
put on prolapse paddle, harness
acepromazine 
sedation?
antiinflammatories will help

prevention: cull; increase 
excercise, avoid lush clover, avoid obesity

caudal paravertebral nerve 
block - S5 and S4 
put finger in rectum, wiggle stub of tail, find S5. 
put finger laterally and find depressions b/w transverse vertebrae - 
inject alcohol in there
the only thing you can do wrong - if you go up to 
S3 in males can interfere wtih urination. works great for vaginal 
prolapse; it's all sensory, you're not going to hurt. if you give alcohol 
epidural, she'll go down and not get up for a month. but go off to the 
side, not epidural and you're ok ;)

uterine prolapse - most common 
following dystocia
recurrence unlikely
clean uterus up really well; put 
back in.
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talking about pregnancy diagnosis...usually late in 
does....does often look pregnant when they aren't...career breeders are 
just round. :) especially ones that have whole litters.

[i'm working on 
something else and not taking good notes in this lecture...]
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