DISEASES OF ANIMALS 



125 



to deal, in some localities, is abortion. 

 This trouble may be due to eating moldy 

 or ergotized feed, to undue exposure, 

 fright, worry, bruises or the existence 

 of some serious disease. The most 

 troublesome form of abortion is of a 

 specific, infectious nature and is trans- 

 mitted from one animal to another, par- 

 ticularly as a result of copulation. The 



Fig. 



77 — NORMAL PRESENTATION OF 

 CALF 



only satisfactory method of preventing 

 this trouble consists in the thorough ap- 

 plication of antiseptic washes to sus- 

 pected bulls and the use of similar anti- 

 septics as vaginal douches in all aborting 

 cows. The aborted calf and the mem- 

 branes must be destroyed at once and 

 all parts of the stall which may have 

 become contaminated should be thor- 

 oughly disinfected. It is best not to use 

 for breeding purposes any animal which 

 has once aborted. 



Fig. 78 — APPARATUS FOR PUMPING AIR IN- 

 TO THE UDDER IN CASES OF MILK FEVER 



Retained afterbirth— The cow is par- 

 ticularly subject to this trouble. If the 

 membranes do not naturally come away 

 within a few hours after calving, they 

 should be removed by hand. This may 

 best be done by twisting a wisp of straw 

 in the projecting membranes and twist- 



ing the whole mass, pulling steadily at 

 the same time but not too hard. If the 

 membranes have been retained long 

 enough for decomposition to begin, it is 

 necessary to give a full vaginal douche 

 containing an antiseptic such as cor- 

 rosive sublimate 1 part to 1000 in water, 

 1 per cent carbolic acid solution, or a 1 

 per cent solution of creolin. 



Milk fever_One of the troubles which 

 dairymen fear most is milk fever. Until 

 Schmidt's treatment for this disease 

 was devised the majority of affected 

 cows died. Recently, however, a satis- 

 factory treatment has been found. Milk 

 fever may be due to too close confine- 

 ment in unsanitary stables, high tem- 

 perature in the stable, constipation and 

 various other predisposing causes, but 

 except in rare instances the disease oc- 

 curs within a short time after calving. 

 It seems, therefore, to be connected with 

 this event. In the acute form of milk 

 fever there is a sudden languor, uncer- 

 tain gait, staggering, dilated pupils, 

 hard pulse and elevation of temperature. 

 The cow lies on her breastbone, with 

 the feet under the body. In the most 

 violent form of milk fever there is re- 



^EIZ^ 



Fig. 79 ANOTHER MILK FEVER 



APPARATUS 



ally no fever at all ; in fact the tempera- 

 ture may be lower than normal. The at- 

 tack comes on slowly, but weakness in- 

 creases until the cow is unable to stand. 

 After lying down she may live for two or 

 three days without treatment. Until 

 recent years the treatment adopted for 

 milk fever consisted in the use of pur- 

 gatives, jce bags on the head and tincture 

 of aconite given internally, followed by 

 stimulants after some improvement 

 was noted. This line of treatment was 

 followed by that devised by Schmidt, 

 which consists in the injection of 10 

 grams iodide of potash into the udder 

 as soon as the symptoms are noted. In 

 a large percentage of cases recovery 

 takes place after this treatment, but oc- 

 casionally a second dose may be neces- 

 sary after 24 hours. The infusion of 



