THE COW IN HEALTH AND DISEASE 137 



intuition, but to the man who has seen several 

 cases of this kind there comes to mind a series 

 of symptoms that have in all probability been 

 unseen by the attendant. 



This is a disease of young cows, usually those 

 having had one or two calves and, while it does 

 affect old cows occasionally, it is not at all com- 

 mon. More often it follows an easy parturition 

 and is rarely seen in cows that have experienced 

 much difficulty in giving birth to their calves. 

 Cows that are affected are invariably in good 

 flesh and thrifty and are heavy milkers. The 

 disease makes its appearance in the majority of 

 cases within one to three days after the cow 

 has calved, but has been known to occur before 

 birth and also as long as four or five weeks 

 after calving. These latter two conditions are 

 uncommon. 



As a rule the cow is down when she is found 

 by the attendant, but the line of symptoms that 

 would be observed are pretty much as follows : 

 The cow refuses to eat and stands without pay- 

 ing any attention to feed or surroundings. If 

 she moves it is with a stiff, wobbly gait and it 

 is noticed that she cannot control her hind parts 

 but weaves and staggers as she walks. The 

 muscles begin to quiver and she shows all signs 

 of having a chill. She will shift her weight con- 

 tinually from one leg to the other. In the course 

 of an hour or so at most and often within the 

 '^time after the cow is seen she goes down ; she 

 lies on her breast, but is unable to get up; she 



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