seizes
the shank just below the hock and uses it as a lever, pushing the body back
and drawing the foot forward, thus effectually seconding the action of the
repeller. Soon a distinct gain is manifest, and as soon as the foot can be
reached it is bent back strongly at the fetlock, held in the palm of the
hand, and pulled up, while the repeller, pressing on the buttocks, assists
to make room for it. In this way the foot may be brought safely and easily
over the brim of the pelvis without any risk of laceration of the womb of
the foot. After the foot has been lifted over the brim, the whole limb can
be promptly and easily extended. In cases presenting special difficulty in
raising the foot over the brim, help may be had by traction on a rope
passed around in front of the hock, and later still by a rope with a noose
fastened to the pastern. In the worst cases, with the buttocks and hocks
wedged deeply into the passages, it may prove difficult or impossible to
push the buttocks back into the abdomen, and in such case the extension of
the hind limb is practically impossible without mutilation. In some roomy
cows a calf may be dragged through the passages by ropes attached to the
bent hocks, but even when this is possible there is great risk of
laceration of the floor of the vagina by the feet. The next resort is to
cut the hamstring just above the point of the hock and the tendon on the
front of the limb (flexor metatarsi) just above the hock, and even the
sinews behind the shank bone just below the hock. This allows the stifle
and hock to move independently of each other, the one undergoing extension
without entailing the extension of the other; it also allows both joints to
flex completely, so that the impacted mass can pass through a narrower
channel. If now, by dragging on the hocks and operating with the repeller
on the buttocks, the latter can be tilted forward sufficiently to allow of
the extension of the stifle, the jam will be at once overcome, and the calf
may be extracted with the hock bent, but the stifle extended. If even this
can not be accomplished, it may now be possible to extract the whole mass
with both hocks and stifles fully bent. To attempt this, traction may be
made on the rope around the hocks and on a sharp hook (Pl. XX, fig. 2)
passed forward between the thighs and hooked on to the brim of the pelvis.
Everything else failing, the offending limb or limbs may be cut off at the
hip joint and extracted, a