DISEASES FOLLOWING PARTURITION. 259 



It will be seen that contagious mammitis is not a single affection, but 

 a group of diseases which Lave this in common, that they attack the 

 udder. 



Prevention is to be especially sought in all such cases. In purchas- 

 ing new cows see that they coine from a herd where the teats and udder 

 are sound. If a new cow conies from a public market with unknown 

 antecedents, let her be milked for a week by a person who does not milk 

 any other cows. Keep her in a separate- stall from others, so that there 

 may be no infection from litter or flooring. Wash the udder with soap 

 and water, and wet with a solution of two teaspoousful carbolic acid in 

 a pint of water before letting the regular milker of the other cows take 

 her. If any cow in the herd shows the indurated end of the teat, or 

 the inliammatiun and nodular tender character of the gland, separate 

 her at once and give her a separate milker. If another cow is to be 

 put into the stall she occupied, first clean and scrape it, and wet it 

 with a strong solution of Milestone, 5 ounces in a gallon of water. The 

 milk may be drawn off with a teat tube, or spring teat dilator (Plate 

 xxiv, figs. 3 and 4), and the milk ducts injected frequently with a solution 

 of peroxide of hydrogen. I have had little success in checking the 

 upward progress of the disease through the teat with carbolic acid, or 

 boracic acid solutions. Used on the outside of the other teats, how- 

 ever, these may serve to prevent them from becoming infected. In the 

 absence of peroxide of hydrogen the affected teat maybe injected with 

 a solution of 1 grain corrosive sublimate in a pint of water, and the 

 same may be used on the other teats, provided it is washed off every 

 time- before milking. 



As additional precautions, no cow with a retained afterbirth or 

 unhealthy discharge from the womb should be left with the other cows. 

 Such cows doubtless infect their own udders and those of the cows next 

 them by lashing with the soiled tail. If milkers handle retained after- 

 birth or vaginal discharge, or unhealthy wounds, or assist in a difticult 

 and protracted parturition, they should wash the hands and arms thor- 

 oughly with soap and warm water and then rub them with the corrosive 

 sublimate solution, or if not, at least with one of carbolic acid. Clothes 

 stained with such offensive products should be washed. 



The general treatment of contagious mammitis does not differ from 

 that of the simple form, except that antiseptics should be given by the 

 mouth as well as applied locally (hyposulphite of soda, one-half ounce 

 daily). 



cowrox. 



This is another form of contagious inflammation of the udder which 

 docs not spread readily from animal to animal except by the hands of 

 the milker. It is held to occur si>outaneously in the cow, but this is 

 altogether improbable, and so-called spontaneous cases are rather to be 

 looked on as instances in which the germs have been preserved dry in 

 the buildings or introduced in some unknown manner. It is not 



