146 DISEASES OP CATTLE. 



Treatment. — The treatment in each case will vary with the cause 

 and is most satisfactory when that cause is a removable one. Over- 

 feeding on richly nitrogenous food can be stopped, exercise in the open 

 field secured, diseased ovaries may be removed (see "Castration," p. 

 300), catarrhs of the womb and passages overcome by antiseptic 

 astringent injections (see "Leucorrhea"), and tumors of the womb may 

 often be detached and extracted, the mouth of that organ having been 

 first dilated by sponge tents or otherwise. The rubber dilator (impreg- 

 nator) though sometimes helpful in the mare is rarely available for 

 the cow, owing to the different condition of the month of the womb. 



DIMINUTION OR LOSS OF VENEREAL DESIRE (ANAPHRODISIA). 



This will occur in either sex from low condition and ill health. 

 Long standing chronic diseases of important internal organs, leading 

 to emaciation and weakness, or a prolonged semistarvation in winter 

 may be sufficient cause. It is, however, much more common as the 

 result of degeneration or extensive and destructive disease of the 

 secreting organs (testicles, ovaries) which elaborate the male and 

 female sexual products, respectively. Such diseases are, therefore, a 

 common cause of sterility in both sexes. The old bull, fat and lazy, 

 becomes sluggish and unreliable in serving, and finally gets to be use- 

 less for breeding purposes. This is not due to his weight and clum- 

 siness alone, but largely to the fatty degeneration of his testicles and 

 their excretory ducts, which prevents the due formation and matura- 

 tion of the semen. 



If he has been kept in extra high condition for exhibition in the 

 show ring, this disqualification comes upon him sooner and becomes 

 more irremediable. 



Similarly the overfed, inactive cow, and above all the show cow, 

 fails to come in heat at the usual intervals, shows little disposition to 

 take the bull, and fails to conceive when served. Her trouble is the 

 same in kind, namely, fatty degeneration of the ovaries and of their 

 excretory ducts (Fallopian tubes), which prevents the formation or 

 maturation of the ovum or, when it has formed, hinders its descent 

 into the womb. Another common defect in such old fat cows is a rigid 

 closure of the mouth of the womb, which prevents conception, even 

 if the ovum reaches the interior of that organ and even if the semen 

 is discharged into the vagina. 



Preventive. — The true preventive of such conditions is to be found 

 in a sound hygiene. The breeding animal should be of adult age, 

 neither overfed nor underfed, but well fed and moderately exercised; 

 in other words, the most vigorous health should be sought, not only 

 that a strong race may be propagated, but that the whole herd, or 

 nearly so, may breed with certainty. Fleming gives 79 per cent as 

 the general average of cows that are found to breed in one year. 

 Here more than a fifth of the progeny is sacrificed and a fifth of the 



