DISEASES OF THE GENEEATIVE ORGANS. 177 



DURATION OF PREGNANCY. 



Mares usually go about eleven months with young, though first 

 pregnancies often last a year. Foals have lived when born at the 

 three hundredth day, so with others carried till the four hundredth 

 day. With the longer pregnancies there is a greater probability of 

 male offspring. 



HYGIENE OF THE PREGNANT MARE. 



The pregnant mare should not be exposed to teasing by a young 

 and ardent stallion, nor should she be overworked or fatigued, par- 

 ticularly under the saddle or on uneven ground. Yet exercise is bene- 

 ficial to both mother and offspring, and in the absence of moderate 

 work the breeding mare should be kept in a lot where she can take 

 exercise at will. 



The feed should be liberal, but not fattening — oats, bran, sound 

 hay, and other feeds rich in the principles which form flesh and bone 

 being especially indicated. All aliments that tend to indigestion are 

 to be especially avoided. Thus rank, aqueous, rapidly growing 

 grasses and other green feed, partially ripe rye grass, millet, Hun- 

 garian grass, vetches, peas, beans, or maize are objectionable, as is 

 overripe, fibrous, innutritions hay, or that which has been injured 

 and rendered musty by wet, or that which is infested with smut or 

 ergot. Feed that tends to costiveness should be avoided. Water 

 given often, and at a temperature considerable above freezing, will 

 avoid the dangers of indigestion and abortion which result from tak- 

 ing too much ice-cold water at one time. Very cold or frozen feed is 

 objectionable in the same sense. Severe surgical operations and 

 medicines that act violently on the womb, bowels, or kidneys are to be 

 avoided as being liable to cause abortion. Constipation should be 

 corrected, if possible, by bran mashes, carrots, or beets, seconded by 

 exercise, and if a medicinal laxative is required it should be olive 

 oil or other equally bland agent. 



The stall of the pregnant mare should not be too narrow, so as to 

 cramp her when lying down or to entail violent effort in getting up, 

 and it should not slope too much from the front backward, as this 

 throws the weight of the uterus back on the pelvis and endangers 

 protrusions and even abortion. Violent mental impressions are to be 

 avoided, for though most mares are not affected thereby, yet a cer- 

 tain number are so profoundly impressed that peculiarities and 

 distortions are entailed on the offspring; hence, there is wisdom 

 shown in banishing particolored or objectionably tinted animals, and 

 those that show deformities or faulty conformation. Hence, too, the 

 importance of preventing prolonged, acute suffering by the pregnant 

 mare, as certain troubles of the eyes, feet, and joints in the foals have 

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