BREEDS OF DAIRY CATTLE 163 







her as soon as the calf is dropped, and to keep her blanketed until 

 she has regained her normal condition. We have sewed bran bags 

 together for a blanket when nothing better was at hand. Her bowels 

 must be kept loose. Give her light, loosening feeds and all the water 

 she will drink, removing the chill from it until the afterbirth has 

 come away. When cold water is given before the afterbirth has been 

 removed, the chill frequently causes a contraction of the mouth of 

 the womb and the retention of the afterbirth. If the afterbirth does 

 not come away in from twenty-four to forty-eight hours, it should be 

 removed by a competent man, as its retention causes a serious loss in 

 the milk yield, often lowering the yield through the entire milking 

 period. 



Where a box stall is kept for calving cows, and a number calve 

 in it, all bedding should be removed after each birth and the floors 

 and sides thoroughly cleaned and disinfected with quicklime or 

 solutions of carbolic acid or corrosive sublimate. 



Unless the cow's milk is so rich that it scours the calf, we prefer 

 to have the calf stay with the cow for a few days. The colostrum, 

 or first milk, is needed as the first food for the calf. If the cow's 

 udder is caked and feverish, the rubbing of the baby calf against 

 it in attempting to suck will help to reduce the inflammation. It is 

 not difficult to teach the calf to drink, even when it has been with 

 the cow for a week, if it is allowed to get quite hungry before the first 

 feed is offered. 



Caked Udder. The udder is often hot and caked. When this 

 is the case, the cow should be milked frequently, at intervals of not 

 longer than two hours, and if the inflammation is serious more fre- 

 quent milkings are -better. Never milk the udder dry while it is in 

 this condition, as, if it is milked out clean, a fresh flow is stimulated, 

 which frequently increases the inflammation and sometimes leads 

 to the fatal milk fever. If the udder is badly inflamed the cow 

 should have a physic, and for this we use IMj pounds Epsom salts per 

 1,000 pounds live weight of cow, dissolving the salts in warm water 

 and giving it as a drench from a long-necked bottle. Besides keep- 

 ing the bowels loose and frequent milkings, hot applications and 

 rubbing are the best means of reducing the inflammation. Dip a 

 flannel cloth in water as hot as the hand will bear, wring it out lightly 

 and hold around the udder. Before the cloth cools dip it again in 

 the hot water and apply as before. Keep this up as long as time will 

 permit. Thirty minutes of such application is good, two hours is 

 better, and after a rest repeat the operation until the swelling is re- 

 duced and the fever gone. Whenever this steaming of the udder is 

 discontinued for a rest, the udder should be rubbed dry by using the 

 hands gently, and we often used camphorated vaseline while rubbing, 

 as it allays the soreness on the surface of the udder. 



When the udder has been badly inflamed, we have sometimes 

 made a sack, covering the entire udder, and suspended it by straps 

 from the hips ; coarse bran is packed between the udder and the sack 

 and kept saturated with hot water by pouring from cups. Holes are 

 made in the sack for the teats, so that the cow can be milked fre- 



