STALLIONS, BROOD MARES AND FOALS. 173 



nancy. Predisposition to abortion is to be found in peculiar 

 conformations of the pelvis, enlargements of the iliac bones, 

 diseases of the womb, constitutional irritability, the influ- 

 ences of too stimulative diet or the reverse, wet seasons, a 

 previous miscarriage, and all circumstances opposed to effi- 

 cient nutrition and respiration. 



The more direct mechanical causes are falls, blows, com- 

 pressions of the abdomen, violent and spasmodic exertion. 

 Functional disorders, severe illnesses, large draughts of cold 

 water or eating iced grass may be considered as the most fre- 

 quent physiological causes. 



The symptons of abortion vary with the term of gestation 

 at which it occurs. When it follows shortly after concep- 

 tion the precursory signs, as well as the fact itself, are fre- 

 .quently unnoticed, and the proprietor is led to believe that 

 the mare has not been fecundated; on the other hand, when 

 miscarriage takes place towards the end of the gestative 

 period the premonitory symptoms are almost identical with 

 the signs of normal parturition, but the pains of abortion 

 invariably precede the changes in the appearance of the 

 external organs of generation, which in normal foaling are 

 noticeable some time before the labor pains come on. The 

 usual signs of the foetus being dead, and not expelled imme- 

 diately afterwards, are symptoms of ill-health in the mare 

 accompanied by a puriform and offensive bloody discharge 

 from the vulva. 



The prevention of abortion is the avoidance of all causes 

 which may have a tendency to produce it. In advanced 

 pregnancy when a symptom of approaching miscarriage has 

 been manifested the greatest care in the subsequent manage- 

 ment of the mare is necessary. She should be placed in a 

 roomy, darkened loose box, left perfectly unmolested, and 

 the services of an experienced veterinary surgeon immedi- 

 ately sought. Whenever a mare has "picked her foal" the 

 cause should, if possible, be determined, and means adopted 

 to prevent other pregnant mares being exposed to similar 

 conditions. They should also be removed to a distance from 

 the place, on account of the mysterious sympathetic influ- 

 ence exercised upon the organism of pregnant animals by the 



