ABORTION. 35 



SYMPTOMS AND TREATMENT 

 OF CATTLE DISEASES 



ABORTION 



OR 

 SLINKING OF CALF 



THE NATURE OF THE DISEASE OF ABORTION. 



Abortion has two distinct though related meanings. The word is used to 

 designate the act of prematurely expelling the foetus or, in common cow parlance, 

 "slinking calf." While this is the first and most common application of the term, 

 the second, and by far the most important designation, is that of the disease which 

 is the cause of perhaps ninety per cent of "calf slinking." 



CONTAGIOUS ABORTION. 



Before it was understood or accepted that aliortion is a disease, the act of 

 abortion or ijrematurely expelling the foetus, was attributed to numberless causes 

 and conditions. 



Some laid the trouble to loosening feeds, such as flax seed meal and millet hay 

 that was over-ripe wdien cut. Others were sure that the smell of fresh blood at 

 butchering time would cause a cow to lose her calf. 



But the most common theory, and one still widely accepted even by those who 

 recognize abortion as a disease, is that the malady is caused by ergot or smut on 

 grasses, corn and other grains. A little farthef on I will take up this last theory. 



I shall not deny that abortion may be hastened by the use of certain feeds which 

 act upon the bowels in such a way as to cause undue straining by the cow, and it is 

 quite possible that the smelling of fresh blood may be the immediate cause of the act ; 

 for nothing will cause more excitement among cows than the smell of the blood of 

 their kind. 



But I am convinced that if every one of these cases of abortion, apparently 

 caused by certain feeds or periods of excitement, could be investigated, it would be 

 found that nearly all, if not all of them, were really caused by the disease of Con- 

 tagious Abortion, the germs of wdrich were in the system of the animal, working upon 

 and weakening the genital organs and interfering with the functions of reproduction 

 and gestation; and that the feed or excitement only hastened the inevitable. 



It is quite possible that, aside from these circumstances of internal or nervous 

 e.xciteraent, many such cows would have carried the calves long enough to give them 

 live birth, but in most cases the calves would have come prematurely. Such are 

 termed "living abortions." Some would even carry the calf full time, but the germs 

 of the disease would remain in the system of both the cow and the calf, causing 

 trouble later for both. 



In my veterinary practice of more than twenty years, which has been devoted in 

 large part to cattle, with special reference to the disease of abortion, I have found 

 that in nearly every case of 'abortion, e.xcept such as were causd by a fall, a kick or 

 other absolute violence, the germs of the disease were in both the cow and the foetus. 



ACCIDENTAL ABORTION. 



As I have intimated, the act of abortion may be caused by accident to the cow. 

 A fail, a kick by an animal or a brutal attendant, being hooked or otherwise injured. 



