4o6 Veterinary Obstetrics 



slow pace, and thus avoid the dangers which may be thrust 

 upon them by injudicious handling while at work. 



Much the same results are noted in pregnant animals which 

 are shipped in railway cars. The shipment itself is not essentially 

 dangerous under proper conditions, but the unsteady movements 

 of the car and the fright of the animal cause it to be thrown 

 about more or less violently. If these violences can be avoided, 

 the dangers from railway travel are reduced to a minimum 

 and rendered comparatively unimportant. 



The dangers which we have enumerated are of such a charac- 

 ter that we would generally wish to avoid them in the non-preg- 

 nant, as well as in the pregnant, animal. The chief difference is 

 that the risk is somewhat greater for the pregnant animal than 

 for the non-pregnant, largely because it involves the lives of 

 both the mother and the young, each dependent upon the other. 



Some writers suggest that the pregnant female should not be 

 allowed near the male, but there is no clinical evidence in support 

 of such a contention. It is quite true that in exceptional cases 

 a pregnant female will show signs of estrum and copulate with 

 the male, but it has not been shown that this is extremely seri- 

 ous. Instances have been observed where abortion has quickly 

 followed copulation, though it has not yet been determined 

 whether the coition caused the abortion or the death of the fetus 

 caused the appearance of estrum and hence the coition. At best, 

 it may be said that injury from this coition during pregnancy is 

 very rare. It is to be remembered, however, that pregnant 

 females will only rarely copulate, and it is a notable fact that 

 those which do so are almost wholly stabled animals and very 

 rarely those which are running at large. In this class of stabled 

 animals, if they show estrum it is usually accepted as conclusive 

 evidence of non- pregnancy, and the animal is bred, incurring 

 all the risks possible were the male habitually free with the female. 



Abortion is probably more rare among those animals where the 

 male and female are allowed to consort throughout the year than 

 in any other class. Upon the ranges, where the bulls consort 

 with cows throughout the year, accidental abortion is not known 

 to be any more common, nor even so likely to occur as in stabled 

 cows, and the same is true in cases where stallions are allowed to- 

 consort with mares throughout the year. In our smaller domes- 



