90 HEALTH AND DISEASE 



frequency with which septic organisms enter the blood-stream and induce 

 parturient fever. 



There is an acute form, running its course very rapidly, a subacute of 

 less intensity and of somewhat longer duration, while a third or chronic 

 inflammation of the womb is occasionally encountered, in which the 

 ordinary symptoms are not marked, but a state of debility follows, with 

 irregularities of oestrum which will be more particularly alluded to in 

 a subsequent paragraph. 



The cause is usually to be found in some abnormal presentment of the 

 foetus, and the difHculties connected with delivery, but that there are others 

 less obvious may be assumed from the fact that the malady is discovered 

 in mares which have passed through the crisis of parturition without any 

 serious obstacle or apparent trouble. 



Lactation may be satisfactory, the maternal solicitude fully awakened, 

 and nothing to indicate a departure from health during the first twenty to 

 forty hours — a rigor indicating approaching inflammation being rare before 

 the latter part of the second day, although, according to some observers, it 

 may be postponed until after the eighth. Shivering (rigor), staring coat, 

 diminished appetite, and a more or less gradual suppression of milk, with 

 a pulse increased in frequency but diminished in force. Other attractive 

 symptoms are shallow and hurried respiration, a rise of two or more de- 

 grees of temperature, a pasty condition of the mouth, redness and swelling 

 of the visible membranes, and coldness of some of the extremities. In 

 the acute form of the malady abdominal pain is indicated by whisking 

 of the tail, looking uneasily round at the flanks, and in some instances 

 striking at the belly with a hind-foot. 



The lameness noted by some observers would appear to arise more from 

 pain accompanying movement of the body than from any actual disorder of 

 the limb, but there are undoubted cramps affecting the muscles of the 

 haunch and simulating paralysis. In the more severe cases patches of 

 sweat appear on the quarter, the animal is indisposed to lie down, as in 

 some other affections where the recumbent posture either adds to pain or 

 induces fear of inability to regain the feet. There is a disposition to stand 

 persistently with arched back, and an objection to movement suggestive 

 of laminitis, which is by no means a rare sequel. The womb is often dis- 

 tended with fluid, which can be felt from outside the flank of a thin mare, 

 and finds escape in variable quantities from the genital orifice as a thin, 

 serous, yellowish or dark-red discharge. The lips of the vagina may be 

 tumefied in sympathy with the womb, or as the result of injury in the act 

 of parturition. 



Where the peritoneum has suffered by extension of the inflammation 



