CONDITIONS FOLLOWING PARTURITION. i i J 



vitulary fever; septiccemia, puerperal eclampsia, drop- 

 ping after calving, parturient apoplexy, parturient 

 collapse, etc. 



Parturient apoplexy may be said to be an acute 

 post-partum disease, observed in all , the domestic 

 animals, but especially in the Cow. Not only so, it may 

 be said to be almost confined to the plethoric animals 

 of the improved breeds. The disease is peculiar to the 

 Cow in the parturient state, and to those animals that 

 are the "deepest milkers". Indifferent milkers are 

 almost exempt. It is exceptional for the disease to 

 make its appearance before parturition. It usually 

 occurs from about twelve to forty-eight hours after that 

 act, and generally after giving birth to the third calf^ 

 the parturition being an easy one. Law says, that the 

 two factors, plethora and parturition, may be set apart 

 as pre-eminently the causes of this disease. The same 

 authority remarks that the condition of the blood- 

 globules in the suffering Cow attest the extreme richness 

 and density of the blood, and that he has never examined 

 the blood of a victim of this disease without finding the 

 red corpuscles reduced to little more than one-half their 

 usual size, due to density of the liquid in which they 

 float. 



Symptoms. — In many cases the disease sets in 

 suddenly, and without any premonitory symptoms; 

 running its course and terminating fatally in a very 

 short space of time. In some instances, the lacteal 

 secretion may be diminished or suspended before the 

 symptoms appear. The Cow hangs her head, stops, 

 feeding, and there is an uneasy movement from one: 



