Pregnancy Structures
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ANATOMY
Mare and pig: diffuse placenta
Dog and cat: zonary placenta
Ruminants: cotyledonary placenta
- Cotyledon=area of attachment of foetal placenta (black areas of diagram).
- Caruncle=maternal endometrial attachment site (stippled areas of diagram).
- Placentome = cotyledon + caruncle.
insert the diagrams here
Normal structures found during pregnancy
- Corpora lutea in ovaries.
- Endometrial cups in the mare. These develop from foetal tissue, visible from day 40, pale and start to slough from day 100. They produce gonadotrophic hormones.
- Amniotic plaques consisting of 2-4 mm plaques of squamous epithelium.
- Placental mineralisation, a milky deposition of calcium mid-pregnancy. May get small bony plaques in the allantochorion.
- Calcified yolk sac remnants.
- Hippomanes in mares.
- Cervical star in mares (placental), an area of fibrosis where the placenta did not attach to uterus during pregnancy.
Information by permission of Professor RW Else