20 BREEDING AND REARING OF 



until her labor is over and the colt is able to get up 

 and suck. Then the groom may retire. Sometimes 

 jennets have inflamed udders and are sore and tender. 

 When that is the case they will not allow the colt to 

 suck, but kick and bite the colt, and it will starve if 

 not looked after properly. When this is the case the 

 jennet will have to be milked carefully and the udder 

 bathed in warm salt water to keep the bag from rising. 

 I have known jennets to bite off the tails of their colts. 

 I think when the jennet has an undue amount of 

 milk in her bag, and it threatens to rise, she should 

 be milked some before she foals. Some jennets give 

 great quantities of milk. It is a good plan not to 

 give much stimulating food before she is due to foal, 

 and not have her too fat. When the colt is born, it 

 sometimes has the membrane over its head and nos- 

 trils, and if it is not torn and removed, it will smother 

 the colt. How important it is then that a competent 

 groom should be present and remove the trouble. 

 Then again there may be a malformation or a wrong 

 presentation of the colt; the feet may be presented 

 instead of the head. In this instance the feet must 

 be reduced, that is pushed back, and the head brought 

 forward. If you have a fine and valuable jennet, and 

 you have such complications, would advise you to have 

 a veterinary surgeon called in. It is now and then 

 that the navel cord is tough and does not give way 

 or break. If it is pulsating after the colt is born, it 

 should be tied with a silk or flax thread, and then 

 cut three or four inches from the navel. Jack colts are 

 liable to have trouble with the navel, same as a child 

 — a disease called trismus, a species of lockjaw, which 

 I never saw in a child (and practiced medicine from 



