CHAPTER IV. 

 MILK FEVER OR DROP AFTER CALVING. 



William Youatt, who is one of the best o-i the old school of writers, 

 says : " Although parturition is a natural process, it is accompanied 

 by a great deal of febrile excitement. The sudden transferring of 

 powerful and accumulated action from one organ to another from 

 the womb to the udder must cause a great deal of constitutional dis- 

 turbance, as well as liability to local inflammation. The cow, after 

 parturition, is subject to inflammation of some of the parts the func- 

 tions of which are thus changed ; it is mere local inflammation at 

 first, but the system speedily sympathises, and puerperal fever or 

 ' drop' appears. It is called dropping after calving because it fol- 

 lows that process, and one of the prominent symptoms of the com- 

 plaint is the loss of all power over the motion o-i the hind limbs, and 

 consequent inability to stand. Cows in high condition are most sub- 

 ject to an attack of puerperal fever. Their excess of condition or 

 state of plethora disposes them to affections of an inflamma ory charac- 

 ter at all times, and more particularly when the constitution labors 

 under excitement accompanying parturition. 



" The disease is an inflammatory one. and must be treated as such, 

 and being thus treated, it is generally subdued without difficulty. The 

 animal should be bled, and the quantity of blood withdrawn should 

 be regulated by that standard so often referred to that rule without 

 exception the impression made upon the circulation. The bowels 

 must be opened, or the disease will run its course ; purging once es- 

 tablished in an early stage, the fever will, in the majority of cases, 

 rapidly subside, leaving the strength of the constitution untouched. 



" That milk fever is sometimes epidemic there is every reason to 

 suppose. The practitioner may, perhaps, be long without a case, but 

 if one occurs in a neighbourhood we have reason to suspect that it 

 will soon be followed by others. The contagious character by which 

 it is so fatally distinguished in the human subject is not, however, so 

 decided ; but this is a subject which well deserves further study." 



Although Ybuatt's theory and medicines were used successfully by 

 some of our dairymen for years, the loss of stock from this disease 

 was considerable. Later on. Dr. Manning's work came under the 

 notice of dairymen. Manning says :* " This fever occurs from the 

 first to the third day after calving ; rarely later than this time. Select 

 breeds and good milkers seem specially' liable to attacks -from this 

 disorder. The primary trouble in this disease is inflammation of the 

 lining membranes of the womb, extending sometimes to its substance 

 and adjacent parts ; and in some cases involving the bowels them- 

 selves.. Among its more remote effects are affections of the brain, 

 congestion of the spinal cord, apoplexy, blood poisoning, and death." 



Causes. Injury to the womb in calving ; the retention of the after- 

 birth ; exposure to chill and cold by sudden changes oi temperature. 

 poor management, &c., may cause milk fever. At times a contagious 

 character seems to attach to the disease, and many cows of the same 

 herd suffer. It is also regarded as mite certain that a cow having 

 once had the fever will have it with her next calf. Over-feeding as 

 the time of calving approaches is also prominent among the supposed 

 causes o-f the disease. Authorities differ somewhat as to whether 

 4i milk fever" is identical with inflammation of the womb. Some think 

 it is not identical ; others that it is the same disease in different 

 Btages, or different degrees of violence. Treatment. When trouble 



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