Management of Normal Parturition 539 



be allowed to cleanse her fetus thoroughly by licking and fondling 

 it as soon as she has recovered from the exhaustion incident to 

 labor. A danger of great importance, in cases where animals are 

 tied by .the head in a stable with other animals, is that the fetus 

 may blunder into an adjoining stall and, especially a foal, may 

 be seriously injured by coming within reach of other horses, 

 which may kick, bite or trample it. With other domestic ani- 

 mals, especially with the cow, this danger is not so great, although 

 present in a minor degree. 



It is not always desirable to remove pregnant females too far 

 from their usual place and surroundings at the time when they 

 are to give birth to young, because in many of them it tends to 

 induce a nervousness and unrest which may lead to more or less 

 serious difficulty. Some animals, especially mares, become very 

 nervous and even frantic when removed from their companions 

 and placed in a strange stall. This should be avoided. 



The stall in which an animal is to give birth to young should be 

 ample in size and scrupulously clean. It should be well-bedded 

 with as clean bedding as it is practicable to obtain. It should be 

 kept quite free from feces and accumulations of urine and other 

 decomposing substances. In case of a highly valued animal, it 

 may even be desirable and economic to keep the stall and bedding 

 disinfected in order to avoid the important and dangerous infec- 

 tions to both fetus and mother which may follow a normal case 

 of parturition. 



The best place in which a herbivorous animal may give birth 

 to young is the open field or pasture, if the weather will permit, 

 there being no place so safe from mechanical accident or from 

 infection. In some cases complications arise which to some de- 

 gree decrease the advantages to j'^oung of birth in the open pas- 

 ture. During the hot summer months flies offer considerable 

 annoyance and have special dangers as infection bearers for the 

 mother and young when the act of birth takes place in the open 

 field. 



The care of the pregnant animal during labor should not be of 

 a kind which will in any way annoy or disturb her. When the 

 animal is of material value, it is well that the course of labor 

 should be sufficiently watched in order to determine whether it 

 is proceeding regularly or not, since it is always important that, 

 if help must be extended to an animal, it should be early. A 



