PARTURIENT LAMINITIS. 



691 



between the fourth and eighth day. The termination is generally recov 

 ery, if proper treatment has been adopted ; though in some cases the 

 malady assumes a chronic form, with the accompanying deformity and 

 disorganization of the feet. In rare instances, death may ensue from 

 nervous exhaustion caused by the excessive pain ; or the inflammation 

 may run on to suppuration, and a fatal result arise from pyaemia, with 

 purulent deposits in the lungs, brain, or other organs. 



A favorable or unfavorable prognosis may, according to Guilmot, be 

 drawn from the lacteal secretion. If this returns in the course of a few 

 days, it is a good sign. 



Causes. 



The cause or causes of parturient laminitis are not well known. The 

 predisposing C2L\1SQ is generally recognized to be the parturient state, though 

 there is a wide divergence of opinion as to the way in which the disease 

 originates. Tisserant believes that it is due to a disturbance in the func- 

 tional equilibrium existing between the various organs. After parturition, 

 and particularly after abortion, there is manifestly a disturbance of this 

 kind ; there is, as Rainard correctly states, a general superabundance of 

 blood, and consequently atende^ncy to disease until the equilibrium 

 between production and consumption is restored. Guilmot thinks that the" 

 space left by the foetus must necessarily bring about a series of exceptional 

 phenomena, whose point of departure is perhaps the superfluous supply 

 of blood thrown into the circulation after parturition. Deneubourg sees 

 in this disease and the so-called vitulary fever of the Cow, two different 

 " modes of expression " of the same disease ; and while recognizing the 

 justness of the expression employed by the old hippiatrists that " the fever 

 has fallen into the feet," he is inclined to think that the morbid localiza- 

 tion is due to sudden suppression of the lochia. " The larger animals," 

 he writes, " are not exempt after parturition from the depuratory process 

 which takes place on the internal surface of the woman's uterus after 

 delivery, and known as the lochia ; and its abrupt suppression gives rise 

 to a disturbance — a fever^ which physicians designate * puerperal fever,' 

 and veterinary surgeons ' vitulary fever.' The disease proper to the Cow 

 is, in our opinion, sirnple vitulary fever ^ which, in concentrating itself on 

 the tendinous, articular, and perhaps muscular tissues, may become a 

 rhcuniatismal vitulary fever. That of the Mare, until now unrecognized, 

 is evidently due to the same cause ; we cannot deny it the parent traits 

 with the vitulary fevers which are witnessed in the Cow, and we propose 

 to designate it by the name of vitulary laminitis, to distinguish it from 

 essential laminitis.''^ 



Bouley, quoted by Saint-Cyr, is of opinion that parturient laminitis may 

 be allied to that other form of laminitis which so commonly succeeds 

 intestinal congestions from accidental causes, or from drastic purgatives ; 

 and that both varieties may well be the result of a momentary paralysis 

 of the vaso-motbr nerves of the keratogenous apparatus of the foot, under 

 the influence of a profoundly depressing action. 



The occasional C2insts are quite as obscure. Tisserant asserts that none 

 of the ordinary causes of laminitis are special in their operation here ; 

 while Deneubourg adds that it equally attacks Mares without distinction 

 as to age, constitution, condition, or hygienic circumstances. Guilmot, 

 however, remarks that Mares which are submitted to moderate work, and 

 which receive an allowance of food in proportion thereto, are not attacked 



