The Country Gentleman's Magazine 



379 



%\it l^terinman. 



PREVENTION OF ABORTION, &c., IN MARES, COWS, AND EWES. 



SUCCESS in this department will be en-f 

 sured only after careful study and re- 

 cognition of the causes, combined with ex- 

 treme care to avoid or arrest their operation. 

 It has been shewn that certain effects upon 

 the nervous system are productive of evil 

 results, and likewise the tendency that exists 

 for the same, to arise from plethora, caused by 

 rich food and want of proper exercise, acute 

 indigestion, and its train of awkward features, 

 ergotism, blood poisoning, infliction under 

 force and restraint, accidents, frights, &c., 

 and it remains but to point out the necessity 

 for the exercise of great care and due surveil- 

 lance over all pregnant animals to obtain 

 successful breeding. 



As far as the question of food is con- 

 cerned, the greatest importance is attached 

 to it, as by judicious selection, proper admix- 

 ture, with attention to supply and regularity, 

 two-thirds of the whole category of causes are 

 swept away, the remainder being dealt with 

 by suitable principles of housing, exercise, 

 and quietness. It is unwise to place too 

 many pregnant animals together, and equally 

 so to put one among a number of males. 

 Quiet companions, with secluded pastures, 

 are desirable, and when the latter cannot be 

 obtained, they may be distributed in pairs in 

 roomy boxes, sheds, yards, or folds, &c., 

 where cut food is supplied. This is more 

 particularly called for as pregnancy advances 

 towards completion. 



Exercise is as indispensable as food, and 

 success in breeding is derived, as much from 

 its beneficial influences as from any other 

 principles that may be adopted. In proper 

 quantity it promotes digestion, and renders 

 the less nutritious kinds of food available for 

 most purposes during gestation, while all the 

 functions of the body are more regularly per- 



ormed, to the exclusion of a dangerous 

 plethora and impure blood supply, which is 

 inevitable under prolonged inactivity and 

 allowances of rich food. The practice of 

 bleeding, which has been frequently recom- 

 mended as a preventive of a plethoric state 

 and its result — abortion, is entirely uncalled 

 for, when proper exercise is enforced, and 

 principles of diet are closely observed. 



In the selection of food, particularly as the 

 approaching time of parturition renders the 

 animal less capable of bearing fatigue, the 

 exercise of much care and thought is required. 

 It must not be too rich, or if very nutritious, 

 it should be combined with other kinds, good 

 and sweet, that are more bulky and less nu- 

 tritious. A proper state of the bowels must 

 be ensured, and this is readily effected by 

 careful dieting as proposed. Bran, with hay 

 and straw chaff, answers admirably to reduce 

 the heating qualities of corn, while grass, 

 clover, and the roots, suitably appear at their 

 appropriate seasons for similar use. Thus 

 diarrhoea and constipation, opposite and 

 dangerous states, in pregnant animals, may 

 be avoided, and a most healthy condition 

 and bodily vigour maintained without re- 

 sorting to injurious medicines for the 

 purpose. 



In order to escape the attacks of ergotism, 

 a careful selection of pastures must be made. 

 In wet seasons, those which have been badly 

 grazed during the summer must be scrupulously 

 avoided, rather preferring those that have 

 been mown late, in which the presence of 

 seeding grasses is almost impossible. It ap- 

 pears that, as a rule, humid localities are most 

 liable to ergot in the ryegrass, and the seed 

 must necessarily be developed in late and 

 wet seasons, to ensure all the conditions that 

 are essential for its formation. An immature 



