636 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 



Symptoms of abortion. — As occurring during the first two or three 

 months of gestation, symptons may escape detection, and unless the 

 aborted product is seen the fact of abortion may escape notice. Some 

 soiling of the tail v/ith mucus, blood, and the waters may be observed or 

 the udder may show extra firmness, and in the virgin heifer or dry cow 

 the presence of a few drops of milk may be suggestive, or the fetus and 

 its membranes may be found in the gutter or elsewhere as a mere clot 

 of blood or as a membranous ball in which the forming body of the fetus 

 is found. In water the villi of the outer membrane float out, giving it a 

 characteristically shaggy appearance. 



In advanced pregnancy abortion is largely the counterpart of par- 

 turition, so that a special description is superfluous. The important thing 

 is to distinguish the early symptoms from those of other diseases, so 

 that the tendency may be arrested and the animal carried to full time if 

 possible. A cow is dull, sluggish, separate from the herd, chewing the 

 cud languidly, or there may be frequent lying down and rising, uneasy 

 movements of the hind feet or of the tail, and slightly accelerated pulse 

 and breathing and dry muzzle. The important thing is not to confound 

 it with digestive or urinary disorders, but in a pregnant cow to examine 

 at once for any increase of mucus in the vagina, or for blood or liquid 

 there or on the root of the tail; for any enlargement, firmness, or tender- 

 ness of the \ 3der. or in dry cows examine for milk; and above all for any 

 slight straining suggestive of labor pains. 



In many cases the membranes are discharged with the fetus; in 

 others, in advanced pregnancy, they fail to come away and remain hang- 

 ing from the vulva, putrefying and falling piecemeal, finally resulting in 

 a fetid dicharge from the womb. According to the size of the herd, con- 

 tagious abortions will follow one another at intervals of one to four or 

 more weeks, in the order of their infection or of the recurrence of the 

 period of activity of the womb which corresponds to the. occurrence of 

 heat. 



Prevention. — Weakness and bloodlessness are to be obviated by gener- 

 ous feeding, .and especially in aliments (wheat, bran, rape cake, cotton 

 seed, oats, barley, beans, etc.) rich in earthly salts, which will also 

 serve to correct the morbid appetite. This will also regenerate the 

 exhausted soil if the manure is returned to it. In the same way the 

 application of ground bones or phosphates will correct the evil acting in 

 this case through the soil first and raising better food for the stock. The 

 ravages of worms are to be obviated by avoiding infested pastures, ponds, 

 streams, shallow wells, or those receiving any surface leakage from land 

 where stock go, and by feeding salt at will, as this agent is destructive 

 to most young worms. 



The tendency to urinary calculi in winter is avoided by a succulent 

 diet (ensilage, steamed food, roots, pumpkins, apples, potatoes, slops), 

 and by the avoidance of certain special causes. Furnishing water inside 

 the barn in winter in place of driving once a day to take their fill of ice- 

 cold water will obviate a common evil. Putrid and stagnant waters are 



