786 Parturient Pare^^is. 



signs of aspiration pneumonia become manifest, such as grad- 

 ually increasing difficulty in breathing and a febrile rise in 

 temperature, and these are followed by death in 4 or 5 days. 

 The inflammation of the lungs can occur in the paralytic stage, 

 so that one should always remember this if the breathing be- 

 comes more freciuent and labored or if the internal tempera- 

 ture rises. 



In exceptional cases, or at least in less severe cases, se- 

 quelae of the illness remain (Jensen), such as paralysis of the 

 n. ischiadicus or of the n. cruralis on one or both sides, further 

 very rarely jDaralysis of the n. facialis. These paralyses are 

 traumatic in origin and disappear at times after a few days, 

 or on the contrary after weeks or months, a more or less visible 

 atrophy of muscle having occurred in the meantime. Excep- 

 tionally necrosis of the m. biceps femoris, of the m. semi-ten- 

 dinosus or of m. gastrocnemius occur, and very rarely of the 

 teats or the digits of the hind feet. After the use of the origi- 

 nal Schmidt treatment (injection of pot. iodide into the udder), 

 mammitis occurred in 2 to 4% of the cases, mostly with penna- 

 nent drying up of the milk. A diminution in the milk secre- 

 tion, lasting until the commencement of the next period of lac- 

 tation and amounting to 2 or 3 liters daily, persists also after 

 the injection of air into the udder, without the development of 

 an udder disease. 



Diagnosis. Loss of consciousness following immediately 

 after Ihrth and not accompanied bj^ fever and the paralytic 

 condition are so characteristic that the ailment can hardly be 

 mistaken for another disease. Lumbar paralysis after parturi- 

 tion may be mistaken for it, but here the paralysis is limited to 

 the hind quarters and consciousness is not lost (see page 748). 

 Puerperal septicemia is characterized by local inflammatory 

 changes in the genital organs, by a rise of temperature and by 

 the s^^nptoms of a febrile disease. The socalled railroad sick- 

 ness (see page 790) may easily be distingaiished from parturient 

 paresis on account of the mode of its occurrence. Fatal hemor- 

 rhages in consequence of rupture of the uterus manifest them- 

 selves by the appearances of severe bleeding (see vol. I). Acute 

 brain diseases (cerebral abscess, tuberculosis) might likewise 

 occasion mistakes in diagnosis (Salvisberg). 



Prognosis. The losses caused by milk fever varied great- 

 ly before the employment of the udder treatment, and this was 

 partly because in some cases slaughtered animals were reck- 

 oned in the total losses ; an emergency slaughter which renders 

 a possible recovery impossible is undertaken more readily in one 

 place, less so in another. On an average the fatalities ranged 

 from 40 to 507^, but often much less or more. It is to the un- 

 questionable and permanent credit of Schmidt that after the 

 introduction of his method of treatment the mortality has in 



