632 DISEASES OF CATTLE, SHEEP, GOATS, ETC. 



expanded to the proportions which it would otherwise have reached. 



Now that the cause of the trouble has been determined, one 

 may be warranted in claiming that the disastrous effects of all out- 

 breaks up to the present time may in the future be avoided in large 

 measure. The owner of the flock of goats will now see the impor- 

 tance of deciding upon the nature of the ailment affecting them just 

 as soon as any general disease is noticed; and when takosis has ap- 

 peared and been identified, if he will at once apply the precaution- 

 ary measures and the course of treatment to be recommended later 

 in this work, he should avoid many of the discouraging experiences 

 of his predecessors. 



As has already been stated in this article, the most serious losses 

 that have come to our notice have occurred among goats that were 

 removed from southern localities to new regions far to northward, 

 and that had not become fully acclimated in their new surround- 

 ings. In many instances the trouble has appeared very soon after 

 the arrival of the animals at their destination, even before they have 

 recovered fully from the serious strain incident to the long journey 

 by rail. 



Another feature of takosis, which is of great economic impor- 

 tance to the breeder of goats, is experienced in the unavoidable ten- 

 dency to abortion which is manifested by all pregnant females that 

 are affected with the disease. Females of the sheep and goat fam- 

 ilies will never reproduce in a prolific manner if in a wasted, 

 emaciated condition during the breeding season. Many of them 

 will fail to come in heat, and others, although passing through the 

 period of estrum normally, will fail to conceive. Takosis is essen- 

 tially a wasting disease, and one of the marked results of its attack 

 upon a flock of breeding goats is seen in the shrunken kid crop of the 

 following season. 



It is rare indeed for a pregnant doe to complete her term of 

 gestation if attacked during this period by takosis. Abortion follows 

 almost invariably. As might naturally be expected, the accident of 

 abortion under these circumstances always ends fatally, as the ani- 

 mal is unable, in her already weakened condition, to withstand the 

 shock incident to delivery. Many times the fetus dies in utero, and 

 thus becoming a foreign body to the maternal organism, it but 

 hastens the eventual collapse of the doe. In holding autopsies on 

 the bodies of affected pregnant does, it has been occasionally noted 

 that the death of the fetus preceded that of the mother by a few 

 days, and the fetal decomposition present has indicated that it 

 played a prominent part in causing the death of the adult. 



One flock has been brought to our notice which contained about 

 1,600 does at the commencement of the breeding season in the fall 

 of 1901. They were seriously affected with takosis at this time, and 

 in consequence there were but seventeen living kids produced in the 

 following spring. Another instance is reported where the total in- 

 crease of a flock of over 1,000 does for the year was limited to eleven 

 living kids. 



