DISEASES FOLLOWING PARTURITION. 223 



Symptoms. — The symptoms appear two or three days after calving, 

 when the cow may be seen to shiver, or the hair stands erect, espe- 

 cially along the spine, and the horns, ears, and limbs are cold. The 

 temperature in the rectum is elevated by one or two degrees, the pulse 

 is small, hard, and rapid (70 to 100), appetite is lost, rumination 

 ceases, and the milk shrinks in quantity or is entirely arrested, and 

 the breathing is hurried. The hind limbs may shift uneasily, the tail 

 be twisted, the head and eyes turn to the right flank, and the teeth 

 are ground. With the flush of heat to the horns and other extremi- 

 ties, there is redness of the eyes, nose, and mouth, and usually a dark 

 redness about the vulva. Pressure on the right flank gives manifest 

 pain, causing moaning or grunting, and the hind limbs are moved 

 stiffly, extremely so if the general lining of the abdomen is involved. 

 In severe cases the cow lies down and can not be made to rise. There 

 is usually marked thirst, the bowels are costive, and dung is passed 

 with pain and effort. The hand inserted into the vagina perceives 

 the increased heat, and when the neck of the womb is touched the 

 cow winces. Examination through the rectum detects enlargement 

 and tenderness of the womb. The discharge from the vulva is at 

 first watery, but becomes thick, yellow, and finally red or brown, with 

 a heavy or fetid odor. Some cases recover speedily and may be al- 

 most well in two days ; a large proportion perish within two days of 

 the attack, and some merge into the chronic form, terminating in 

 leucorrhea. In the worst cases there is local septic infection and 

 ulceration, or even gangrene of the parts, or there is general septi- 

 cemia, or the inflammation involving the A^eins of the womb causes 

 coagulation of the blood contained in them, and the washing out of 

 the clots to the right heart and lung leads to the blocking of the ves- 

 sels in the latter and complicating pneumonia. Inflammation of the 

 womb and passages after calving are always liable to these complica- 

 tions, and consequently to a fatal issue. Franck records three in- 

 stances of rapidly fatal metritis in cows, all of which had been 

 poisoned from an adjacent cow with retained and putrid afterbirth. 

 Others have had similar cases. 



Treatment. — Treatment in the slight cases of simple inflammation 

 does not differ much from that adopted for vaginitis, only care must 

 be taken that the astringent and antiseptic injections are made to 

 penetrate into the womb. After having washed out the womb a solu- 

 tion of chlorid of lime or permanganate of potassium (one-half ounce 

 to 1 quart of water) , with an ounce each of glycerin and laudanum to 

 render it more soothing, will often answer every purpose. It is 

 usually desirable to open the bowels with 1^ pounds of Glauber's salt 

 and 1 ounce of ginger in 4 quarts of warm water, and to apply 

 fomentation of warm water or even mustard poultices or turpentine 

 to the right flank. 



