DISEASES OF THE GENERATIVE 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, innutritious 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 
36444°—16——12 
