136 SPECIAL EQUINE THERAPY 



begin the treatment before tbe colt was bom, I have been 

 able to excite the secretion of milk in a mild degree by 

 rapidly repeated doses of pilocarpin on the day of birth. 

 When this treatment is resorted to, the colt in almost 

 every instance develops a diarrhoea. This is usually of a 

 mild type and responds to ordinary treatment. 



The occurrence of agalactia in brood mares, especially 

 on small farms, is a veritable calamity. The veterinarian 

 should warn his clients of the possibility of this occur- 

 rence and should impress upon them the great impor- 

 tance of early intervention in those cases of a curable 

 form. 



In the first form described, I have never been able to 

 accomplish anything with treatment. There seems to be 

 in those cases not only an atony of the mammary glands, 

 but also an aberration of function, and, although the 

 glands sometimes respond to treatment by showing signs 

 of renewed engorgement, the fluid which they secrete 

 remains the same — a blackish jelly. In either form of 

 the affection, the mare should not be discarded for breed- 

 ing purposes; the milk flow may be normal at the next 

 pregnancy. On the other hand, I have had two or three 

 patients that developed agalactia in two successive 

 pregnancies. 



