Parturition Fever, etc. 311 



ring during the second week were very hopeful. With the 

 Schmidt (iodine) treatment the mortality is claimed to be reduced 

 to 16 or 17 per cent., and with the air inflation treatment to .5 per 

 cent. 



Prevention. Measures directed toward the lessening of 

 plethora tend to remove one of the most fruitful causes of the 

 disease and though not invariably successful, are yet of great 

 value. The most direct is the abstraction of blood va. the last fort- 

 night of pregnancy, to the extent of 6 or 8 quarts. This tends 

 to secure a lessening of the blood tension, and blood density, but 

 there is the drawback of a created tendency to a subsequent in- 

 crease in the blood formation to make up the loss. This measure 

 should be reserved for cows that are very plethoric, extra heavy 

 milkers and such as have already suffered from the disease. 



Purgatives will measurably secure the same end without the 

 same degree of danger. One to two pounds of Epsom or Glauber 

 salts in the last week of gestation, or at latest when labor pains 

 set in, tend not only to remove solid or impacted masses from the 

 first and third stomachs, and inspissated contents from the large 

 intestines, but to secure a free depletion from the portal system. 

 If not before, this should always be given immediately after 

 parturition to cows in extra high condition, heavy milkers, and 

 that have had a short and easy delivery. 



Restriction of pod for a week before and as long after parturi- 

 tion is of equal importance. A very limited supply of aqueous, 

 easily digested, and laxative food (roots, sloppy bran mashes, 

 fresh grass, ensilage) will meet the demand. 



Exercise in the open air is of great value in giving tone to the 

 ■ muscles, and especially the nervous system, and in stimulating 

 the enunctories and other functions. 



In the cold season protection against cold draughts and chills 

 must be seen to, and in the hot season the avoidance of an excess 

 of solar heat and above all of the confined impure air of the barns. 



At midsummer and later, there is often great danger in the 

 rich clover and alfalfa pasture, or soiling crop, with which the cow 

 will dangerously load her stomach, and the only safe course is to 

 remove predisposed animals and shut them up in a bare yard or 

 box-stall. Under such simple precautions herds that had formerly 

 stiffered severely, have had the disease virtually put a stop to. 



