234 THE FARM DOCTOR. 



phor, and general stimulants must be made, with antiseptics 

 (chlorate of potassa, carbolic acid, sulpho-carbolates or bichro^ 

 mate of potassa). 



PARTURITION-FEVER IN COWS. MILK-FEVER. PARTURIENT 



APOPLEXY. 



Causes. — Plethora, costiveness, and the susceptibility attend- 

 ant on parturition. It attacks mainly heavy milkers, animals 

 in full flesh that have been well-fed just before and after calving 

 and have been delivered easily with little loss of blood or 

 nervous expenditure. It is most frequent in the hot season 

 when the grass is most luxuriant and nutritive, but may occur 

 at any season in the best class of cows. 



Sympto?ns. — Dulness, languor, uneasy movements of the hind 

 limbs, a full, bounding pulse, red eyes, hot head and horns ; 

 soon the cow becomes weak on its limbs, unable to rise, lays 

 the head back on the flank or dashes it on the ground, breaking 

 the horns if the surface is hard, and struggles convulsively with 

 its limbs. The surface may now be bedewed with perspiration, 

 the eyes red, fixed, or rolling convulsively, the pupils dilated, 

 the heat of the head still greater, and the pulse quicker and 

 weaker. Sensation is completely lost, the skin may be pricked 

 at any point without the slighest response, and the eyeball 

 touched without causing winking. Neither dung nor urine is 

 passed, the intestines and bladder being also the seat of 

 paralysis or torpor. 



In one form of the disease the heat of the head, delirium, 

 and violence may be almost entirely wanting, the prominent 

 symptoms being the fever, accelerated pulse and breathing, 

 elevated temperature, loss of power over the limbs, paralysis of 

 sensation, inappetence, torpor of bowels and bladder. Both 

 forms are exceedingly fatal, almost all attacked within two days 

 after calving perishing, and a large proportion of those taken 

 ill during the first week, 



