MILK FEVER. 291 



Treatment. A dose of salts internally, and fomentations 

 or poultices. Apply to the swelling and to the sores, if 

 there be any, which will depend upon whether the skin 

 gives way or not. 



Malignant Catarrh. — (See Catarrhus, etc.) 



Mammitis. — (See Garget.) 



Mange. — (See Mange in the first part of this book.) 



Milk Fever. —Febris Lactea — Metria. Milk fever occurs 

 from the first to the third day after calving ; rarely after 

 the third day. It is seldom met with before the fourth 

 calving, then attacking chiefly cows of select breeds, and 

 good milkers. Milk fever consists in inflammation of the 

 womb, which sometimes even extends to the bowels. 



Sr/mptoms. Loss of appetite ; chewing the cud, or rumi- 

 nation ceases ; staggering gait, wild look, falls and cannot 

 rise. If the disease be not checked the brain will soon be 

 affected also, when the cow will dash about with her head 

 and horns plunging them into the ground. 



Cause. Undue determination of the blood to the womb 

 from over feeding before, and immediately after calving, 

 and from sudden changes of the weather at the time of 

 calving. 



Prevention. Give, one week before calving, one pound 

 of epsom salts, half a pound' of table salt, and half an 

 ounce of ground ginger, mixed in four bottles of cold 

 water and sweetened with molasses. Let the cow's feed 

 be of the lightest kind, such as hay and thin slop mashes, 

 and no meal, grain or solid food. This measure will 

 lessen the tendency to interruption of the circulation, and 

 will improve the health and tone of the whole system. 

 To avoid, as much as possible, the effects of sudden changes 



