968 Veterinary Obstetrics 



milked b}' separate milkers, or, if by the same milker, they 

 should be milked last. When the disease exists in a dairy, dis- 

 infectants should be freely used on the milker's hands and the 

 cow's udders, both before and after the milking of each cow. 



3. Ex.\NTHEMA OF THE UdDER. ThE MaMMITIS OF CoW-POX 

 AND PoCK-LIKE DiSEASEvS. 



Pox of the udder is quite common in milk cows in some re- 

 gions. Some hold that there is a true and a false pox, while 

 others claim that the two alleged diseases are really identical and 

 consist of the genuine cow-pox. 



Cow-pox is usually of a benign character, though at times it 

 is severe and tends to produce mammitis. At the beginning of 

 the disease there may be present the general symptoms of fever, 

 including chills with constipation and a decreased flow^ of milk. 

 This is followed in the course of a few hours by characteristic 

 lesions of the teats and the parts immediately surrounding these, 

 consisting at first of hypersemic areas, with swelling of the sur- 

 rounding skin. The skin is tender upon handling, and the cow 

 resists being milked. In the course of two or three days there 

 appear distinct papules in the inflamed areas, which vary some- 

 what in their appearance according to the color of the skin. If 

 the integument is not too highly pigmented, the papules are 

 surrounded by a red zone, and become pitted or pocked in their 

 center. The contents of the papules are at first clear and lym- 

 phoid in character, but later become cloudy and more or less 

 purulent, and finally dry, to constitute a scab, which drops away 

 in two or three weeks, leaving a reddish, depressed scar. 



Should the pustules be injured by careless milking or other- 

 wise, and the crusts torn away, the disease processes become 

 intensified, the ulcers extend, and perhaps those which are near 

 together become confluent. The crusts forming over the surface 

 are verN^ extensive, and under repeated irritation the lesions tend 

 constantly to grow worse. The eruptions do not all appear sim- 

 ultaneously, but new crops arise from time to time, so that there 

 may be fresh papules alongside the old crusts or ulcers. 



While the course of cow-pox is usually benign, in severe cases 

 there is a tendency to the occurence of mastitis of a severe type. 

 It is not known that the mastitis is due to the entrance of the 

 cow-pox organism into the udder. It is probable that the pox 



