9.27.96

meg and dr dodson gave tips on taking exam....take TIME. don't forget to 
identify sex, species, forelimb vs hindlimb, etc.

Circulation in the pelvis. see p 228 fig 164 small millers.
the really important arteries are on those diagrams.

so, the aorta is running caudally and it terminates as right and left 
external and internal iliac arteries and an unpaired median sacral 
artery.

the internal iliac as it runs back has a visceral branch - internal 
pudendal, parietal branch which supplies gluteal muscles = caudal 
gluteal. by definition, internal iliac ends at a branch where the caudal 
gluteal and the internal pudendal divide from one another. internal iliac 
short in dog and horse, long in cat and ruminants. you may see other 
arteries branching off BEFORE the caudal gluteal/internal pudendal split, 
so you need to look at where the arteries go. 

There is a branch of the internal iliac (or, might come off the caudal 
gluteal) which runs around the lumbar side of the ilial blade called 
iliolumbar. There's another branch which runs around the back of the 
ilium and heads cranially, supplying sartorius, TFL, and middle 
gluteals., called the cranial gluteal. 

caudal gluteal runs with sciatic nerve. heads toward the tail. branches 
off the internal iliac caudal to the cranial gluteal.

in the dog the internal pudendal branches off right away after the 
internal iliac originates and goes to the viscera. the umbilical artery 
may be present as well, possibly patent to the bladder. but anyway, the 
internal pudendal in the dog becomes the parent artery from which other 
arteries arise, such as the vaginal or prostatic artery - in both sexes 
this v/p artery has branches that go to other organs: bladder, ureter, 
colon. in the female there is a uterine branch, analogous to the deferent 
duct in the male.

in cats, the vaginal or prostatic artery comes off the internal iliac, so 
you have int.iliac, iliolumbar, cranial gluteal, then vag/prost artery, 
then int iliac branches into caudal gluteal and internal pudendal.

caudal gluteal heads toward butt/tail with sciatic nerve


so the internal pudendal also gives off a ventral perineal branch, and 
then it gives off the artery of the penis or the clitoris. it's large in 
the male, and divides into three branches, but in the female, it's much 
smaller.