430 THE MANAGEMENT ANJ) FEEDING OF CATTLE 



she should be isolated at once and cared for by a separate 

 attendant, and not returned to the herd until three days 

 after all discharge has ceased. The fetal membranes, if 

 retained, should be at once removed by hand, and they, 

 along with the fetus and bedding, burned or buried. 

 After scraping the stall and floor, and even the stalls 

 adjoining, they should be disinfected with a 5 per cent 

 solution of carbolic acid. Disinfection so elaborate is 

 sometimes recommended that it would seem almost bet- 

 ter to fatten and sell the herd than to carry it out. 

 Animals that have aborted should not be bred again 

 short of two to three months. 



Treatment as follows, if timely, may be effective in 

 some instances in preventing abortion of the sporadic 

 type after the labor pains have begun : Give i to 2 

 ounce doses of laudanum according to the size of the 

 cow, repeated, if necessary, in three or four hours ; or, 

 what is even better, 2 ounces tincture of opium, 3 ounces 

 fluid extract of Viburium prunifolium and 10 ounces 

 syrup, repeated every two hours until the labor pains 

 cease. The after-effects of abortion on cows result in 

 much debility. 



Milk fever in cows. — Milk fever affects cows only 

 among domestic animals and usually those whose milk- 

 ing qualities are of a high order. Its attacks are almost 

 entirely restricted to the improved breeds, and especially 

 to cows of the dairy and dual types. It never occurs 

 with young cows at the birth of the first calf and rarely 

 with the same at the second birth. Old cows past the 

 zenith of highest producing power do not have it, and it 

 occurs but rarely in cows thin in flesh. Its attacks are 

 almost entirely confined to cows when giving birth to 

 the third, fourth, fifth, or sixth calf, that is, to cows that 

 have reached maturity and whose powers during this 

 period of greatest vigor are centered on the production 

 of maximum quantities of milk. Moreover, its attacks 

 are usually confined to cows that are great consumers 



