Post- Puerperal Uterine Infections 587 



during pregnancy so severe an infection that it caused abor- 

 tion, and during the puerperium outstanding metritis, so 

 far recover that they again conceive and successfully pass 

 through pregnancy. On the other hand the infection is 

 often so mild that an apparently healthy calf is born and no 

 external evidences of puerperal disease follow. But when 

 it is attempted to breed such a cow again, she may be tempo- 

 rarily or permanently sterile, or, having conceived, may 

 abort owing to the fact that, during the period when many 

 cows are overcoming infection, her uterus has been over- 

 come by the infection. 



The puerperal period is a critical time in the breeding his- 

 tory of a cow. It is one of the most important and favorable 

 periods in the life of a cow in which to attack successfully 

 genital infections, and the chief aim of the practitioner 

 should be to deal energetically with the infections during the 

 puerperium and not to permit them to drag along into the 

 post-puerperal stage. For example, since retained after- 

 birth is generally handled simply and wholly as "retained 

 afterbirth", as soon as the membranes are out of the uterus 

 the ignorant or careless veterinarian thinks of his task as 

 completed and allows the fundamental metritis to persist 

 into the post^puerperal period. Then he faces the difficult 

 problem of handling chronic endometritis or pyometra, and 

 perhaps fails to restore the reproductive life of the animal, 

 thus occasioning irretrievable loss. It is clearly an error in 

 professional duty to permit avoidably the metritis of re- 

 tained fetal membranes to continue into the post-puerperal 

 period. 



In the post-puerperal period new infection may invade 

 the uterus from without. There is nothing to show that there 

 is great danger of any infection invading the uterus during 

 this period as a result of ordinary cohabitation. That is, 

 there is no conclusive evidence that the presence of a cow 

 which has recently aborted, has retained afterbirth, or is 

 suffering from other disastrous-type of genital infection has 

 any great or recognizable peril for non-pregnant contact 

 cows. There is no evidence that harm comes to a healthy 



