DISEASES OF THE GENERATIVE ORGANS. 191 



is seen the fact of abortion may escape notice. Some soiling of the tail 

 with mucus, blood, and the waters may be observed, or the udder may 

 show extra firmness, and in the virgin heifer or dry cow the presence of 

 a few drops of milk may be suggestive, or the fetus and its membranes 

 may be found in the gutter or elsewhere as a mere clot of blood or as a 

 membraneous ball in which the forming body of the fetus is found. In 

 water the villi of the outer membrane (chorion, Plate xn) float out, 

 giving it a characteristically shaggy appearance. 



In advanced pregnancy abortion is largely the counterpart of parturi- 

 tion, so that a special description is superfluous. The important thing 

 is to distinguish the early symptoms from those of other diseases, so 

 that the tendency may b.e arrested and the animal carried to full , time 

 if possible. A cow is dull, sluggish, separate from the herd, chewing 

 the cud languidly, or there may be frequent lying down and rising, 

 uneasy movements of the hind feet or of the tail, and slightly acceler- 

 ated pulse and breathing, and dry muzzle. The important thing is not 

 to confound it with digestive or urinary disorder, but in a pregnant cow 

 to examine at once for any increase of mucus in the vagina, or for blood 

 or liquid there or on the root of the tail; for any enlargement, firmness, 

 or tenderness of the udder, or in dry cows milk, and above all for any 

 slight straining suggestive of labor pains. 



In many cases the membranes arc discharged with the fetus; in oth- 

 ers, in advanced pregnancy, they fail to come away, and remain hang- 

 ing from the vulva, putrefying and falling piecemeal finally resulting 

 in a fetid discharge from the womb. According to the size of the herd 

 contagious abortions will follow one another at intervals of one to four 

 or more weeks, in the order of their infection or of the recurrence of the 

 period of activity of the womb which corresponds to the occurrence of 

 heat. 



Prevention. Weakness and bloodlessness are to be obviated by gen- 

 erous feeding, and especially in aliments (wheat bran, rape cake, cotton 

 seed, oats, barley, Jt>eans, pease, etc.^, rich in earthy salts, which will 

 also serve to correct the morbid appetite. This will also regenerate the 

 exhausted soil if the manure is returned to it. In the same way the 

 application of ground bones or phosphates will correct the evil, acting 

 in this case through the soil first and raising better food for the stock. 

 The ravages of worms arc to be obviated by avoiding infested pastures, 

 ponds, streams, shallow wells or those receiving any surface leakage 

 from land where stock go, and by feeding salt at will, as this agent is 

 destructive to most young worms. 



The tendency to urinary calculi in winter is avoided by a succulent 

 diet (ensilage, steamed food, roots, pumpkins, apples, potatoes, slops), 

 and by the avoidance of the special causes named under (I ravel. (See 

 p. 153). Furnishing water inside the barn in winter in place of driv- 

 ing once a day to take their fill of ice-cold liquid will obviate a common 

 evil. Putrid and stagnant \vatcr arc to bo avoided. Sudden changes 



