224 THE FARM DOCTOR 



bladder), stalls too much inclined backward, overfeeding, 

 plethora, hot, damp, relaxing stables, severe muscular exertion 

 after long rest, exhausting feeding for milk at the expense of 

 the system, breeding at too early an age, proximity to or con- 

 tact with slaughter-houses or dead and decomposing animal 

 matter, especially the abortion discharges of other animals, 

 drinking putrid or iced watei, disease, deformity or death of the 

 foetus, feeding on ergoted grasses or smutty wheat or com, and 

 finally, the presence in the passages of a microscopic vegetable 

 parasite (leptothrix vaginalis) which is easily transferred from 

 one animal to another so as to procure abortion. 



Symptoms. — In the early stages of gestation abortion often 

 takes place without any warning, and is only ascertained by the 

 animal again coming in heat. Later, the preliminary signs and 

 nrogress may be those of an ordinary parturition, or in other 

 cases a whitish muco-purulent discharge may take place from 

 the vulva for some time before abortion occurs. A fiUitv^ of 

 the udder and a loose, flaccid condition of the external genera- 

 ti"we organs often furnish premonitions. 



Prevention. — Treatment. — Avoid the various causes above 

 named when found to exist. Especially should attention be 

 given to secure a diet and regimen which shall obviate indiges- 

 tion, to eradicate from the hay-fields all irritant plants, to feed 

 a certain amount ot roots in winter to obviate urinary calculi, 

 to cut meadows subject to ergot before they run to seed, or, 

 better still, to plough them up and put under a rotation of other 

 crops, to feed roots with ergoted hay or smutty corn if these 

 must be consumed, to let the system be somewhat developed 

 before breeding, and not to milk too heavily the first year, to 

 give pure air and water and wholesome buildings, and, finally, 

 to use antiseptics on the discharges, and to keep all sound 

 animals apart from the diseased or their products. A beast 

 aborting, from whatever cause, should be allowed to run over 

 several periods of heat before she is served again When 



