Retention of Foetal Membranes In A Female Camel

Abstract

A female camel aged six years was brought to the veterinary obstetrics and gynaecology clinics, C.V.A.S., Bikaner with a history of normal parturition twenty hours back, birth of a live male calf and complaint of retention of after birth. The general condition of the animal was good and the temperature was normal (100 0 F). Small part of foetal membranes was hanging out of the vulvar lips. The animal was restrained in sternal recumbency and on vaginal examination the foetal membranes were found to be retained in the uterus. The foetal membranes were removed by gentle pulling of the after birth. The weight of foetal membranes was 7.1 kg and it appeared to be normal without any haemorrhagic foci. The animal was administered 4 gm of oxytetracycline deep intrauterine; Inj. Terramycin (Pfizer) 25 ml i.m. for 5 days, along with herbal ecbolics (Exapar, Dabur Ayurvet) 250 ml daily per os for five days. There was an uneventful recovery. The incidence of retained placenta in camelidae is very low, due to the diffuse type of placenta. Retention of placental membranes is very rare, but if premature delivery occurs, the chances of retained placenta increases in the bactrian camel (Zhao, 2000). Following normal birth the incidence is reported to be as low as 2% in the dromedary camel (Tibary and Anouassi, 1997). However, in the bactrian camel the incidence is reported to be 11.1 % (Sharma, 1968). In llama and alpaca the placenta is considered to be retained if it has not been expelled within six hours of birth (Fowler, 1989), however, in the dromedary the placenta can take up to twelve hours in expulsion without any ill effect on the parturient and most of the cases of retained placenta observed after normal birth are due to uterine inertia (Tibary and Anouassi, 1997), contrary to this, Prakash and Singh (1962) recorded an average time of 117 minutes for the expulsion of foetal membranes in dromedaries with minimum and maximum as 65 and 330 minutes respectively, further the average total time required for expulsion of foetal membranes of male and female calves was 152.34±97.5 and 121.57±61.5 minutes respectively