DISEASES OF THE PREGNANT ANIMAL. 



Special diseases of pregnant animals are comparatively rare. 

 Most pregnant animals are kept in a reasonably natural state and, 

 consequently, do not suffer greatly as a result of gestation. 

 Quite naturally pregnancy confers no immunity against the 

 ordinary diseases of animals. Nevertheless, we find more or less 

 serious diseases during gestation, which are referable to the pregr 

 nant state and which require our attention. The tendency to 

 disease of pregnant animals is in harmony with the environment, 

 the degree of domestication and the care given the animal. 

 Those animals which are most closely confined and housed are 

 most subject to diseases during the pregnant state ; but this is 

 also in harmony with the prevalence of the diseases of non-preg- 

 nant animals. 



The influence of gestation upon the course of the ordinary dis- 

 eases of animals is not well marked and apparently makes very 

 little difference, except that, when a pregnant animal becomes so 

 seriously diseased that its life is threatened, the fetus tends, in 

 many cases, to perish and become expelled prior to the death of 

 the mother. Hence, any serious disease of the pregnant female 

 may acquire additional gravity because of the possibility of abor- 

 tion, which would complicate the malady. It must be admitted 

 that the fetus constitutes a heavy burden upon the maternal 

 system and, when serious disease arises, this demand upon the 

 nutritive supply of the mother for the maintenance of the life of 

 the fetus may constitute a factor in reference to the prognosis of 

 -the malady. Advanced pregnancy may greatly modify the prog- 

 nosis of fractures, strains and other more or less disabling inju- 

 ries, the extra weight of the gravid uterus adding to the difficulty 

 of getting up and down and interfering with locomotion in a 

 manner which may jeopardize the life of the mother or the young. 



All those infectious diseases which are frequently accompanied 

 by abortion, such as contagious pleuro-pneumonia of cattle, sheep- 

 pox, contagious cellulitis or pink eye, hog cholera, and foot and 

 mouth disease, are constantly more dangerous for the pregnant 

 female than for other animals, because of the danger which they 

 possess for the life of the fetus, and the extra hazard to the 

 mother through its death and expulsion. 

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