358 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 



raised without flexing the joints, the front of the hoof being 

 directed toward the ground, or the spasms occurring inter- 

 mittently the foot is kicked violently against the ground 

 several times in rapid succession. The muscles are felt to 

 be firm and rigid. The cramps may be promptly relieved by 

 active rubbing or by walking the animal about, and it does 

 not reappear after parturition. 



CONSTIPATION. 



This may result from compression by the gravid womb 

 and is beat corrected by a graduated allowance of boiled flax- 

 seed. 



PARALYSIS. 



The pressure on the nerves of the pelvis is liable to cause 

 paralysis of the hind limbs, or in the mare of the nerve of 

 sight. These are obstinate until after parturition, when 

 they recover spontaneously or under a course of nux vomica 

 and (locally) stimulating liniments. 



PROLONGED RETENTION OF THE FOETUS (FOAL). 



In the mare, though far less frequently than in the cow, 

 parturition may not be completed at term, and the foal may 

 continue to be carried in the womb for a number of months, 

 to the serious or even fatal injury of the mare. Hamon 

 records one case in which the mare died after carrying the 

 foetus for seventeen months, and Caillier a similar result 

 after it had been carried twenty-two months. In these cases 

 the foetus retained its natural form, but in one reported by 

 Gohier the bones only were left in the womb amid a mass of 

 apparently purulent matter. 



The cause may be any effective obstruction to the act of 

 parturition, such as lack of contractile power 'in the womb, 

 unduly strong (inflammatory) adhesions between the womb 

 and the foetal membranes, wrong presentation of the foetus, 

 contracted pelvis (from fracture, or disease of the bones), or 

 disease and induration of the neck of the womb. 



The mere prolongation of gestation does not necessarily 

 entail the death of the foal; hence the latter has been born 

 alive at the four-hundredth day. Even when the foal has 



