ATTENTION AFTER CALVING. 



the foetus has been wounded or broken, and considerable inflammation 

 and fever have been set up, she will probably die : but if she is no 

 more exhausted than may be naturally expected, and the fever is 

 dight, and she eats a little, she should not be abandoned. 



Mr. King relates an instructive case of this kind : — A few years 

 ago I was called to see a heifer which appeared to be rather losing 

 condition, and which had been observed occasionally to void some 

 oflfensive matter from the vagina. Before I could get to her, some 

 portion of a calf's fore -extremity came away. The owner was very ap- 

 prehensive of her not doing well, and earnestly pressed the extraction 

 of the remainder of the foetus. On examination, I found the os uteri 

 so small and contracted, that I could not pass my hand ; and as the 

 beast ate and drank, and was so little, either locally or constitution- 

 ally, disturbed, I persuaded him to leave her to nature, watching her 

 in case of assistance being required. He consented, and, by degrees, 

 and in detached portions, the greater part, or perhaps the whole of 

 the calf (she was not confined) came away, and she did well, and 

 became fat. 



The same gentleman relates another case : A cow, healthy, fine, 

 and fat, was slaughtered. The uterus was found to contain the skel- 

 eton of a calf almost entire, all the soft parts having separated, and 

 wholly escaped. Nothing of her history was known. There is an 

 instance on record of the head of a calf (all the other parts having 

 passed away unobserved) being retained in the womb eighteen 

 months. Pains resembling those of parturition then came on. The 

 veterinary surgeon, on examination, detected a hard round body 

 which he mistook for a calculus, and which was so firmly imbedded 

 in the womb that he was compelled to have recourse to a bistoury 

 in order to detatch it. In a fortnight she seemed to be well. 



ATTENTION AFTER CALVING. 



Parturition having been accomplished, the cow should be left 

 quietly with the calf ; the licking and cleaning of which, if it be soon 

 discharged, will employ and amuse her. It is a cruel thing to sep- 

 arate the mother from the young so soon ; the cow will pine, and 

 will be deprived of that medicine which nature designed for her in 

 the moisture which hangs about the calf ; and the calf will lose that 

 gentle friction and motion which helps to give it the immediate use 

 of all its limbs, and which increases the languid circulation of the 

 61ood, and produces a genial warmth in the half exhausted and chill- 

 ed little animal. A warm mash should be put before her, and warm 

 gruel, or water from which some of the coldness has been taken off. 

 Two or three hours afterwards it will be prudent to give an aperient 

 drink consisting of a pound of Epsom salts and two drachms of gin- 

 ger. This may tend to prevent milk fever and garget in the udder. 

 Attention shoul i likewise be paid to the state of the udder. If the 



