Parturient Paresis in the Cow 927 



recovery. This would lead many to believe that the malady 

 was really parturient paresis. 



Causes. While we do not comprehend the fundamental 

 nature of milk fever in the cow, we nevertheless know fairly 

 well the conditions which predispose or lead up to the disease. 



1 . Chief among the causes, stands the quality of the cow as a 

 deep or profuse milker. Milk fever is pre-eminently a disease of 

 the high-class dairy cow, and has herertofore stood as a perpetual 

 menace against the improving of dairy breeds, because the more 

 excellent the individual as a dairy animal the more vulnerable 

 to the disease. On the other hand, cows belonging to the beef 

 breeds, or poor milkers among dairy cows, are virtually immune. 



2. The state of nutrition of the animal has a very marked and 

 well known influence upon the occurrence of parturient paresis. 

 This is a disease of the plethoric cow, and not of those which 

 are emaciated or excessively fat. It occurs, we may say, in 

 those animals which are in the highest possible condition, and 

 apparently in perfect health up to the hour of attack. 



3. Food and housing have been claimed to influence the tend- 

 ency of the cow to parturient paresis, and this is in many re- 

 spects very true. The malady is seen much more frequently in 

 some seasons and in some communities than in others, which is 

 variously attributed to the food or weather. These questions 

 are inseparable from that of nutrition. If the weather is bad, 

 the food may be bad. Undue exposure may lower the condition 

 of the animal, and thus prevent the high condition which predis- 

 poses to milk fever. 



We observe the disease in the stable and in the pasture, and 

 the relative frequency will vary according to conditions. Par- 

 turient paresis may occur chiefly during the spring or early 

 summer, in cows which are upon very rich pastures ; or in other 

 cases the disease may be seen most frequently in those animals 

 which are kept in the stable. This will vary according to the 

 comparative excellency of the pastures or of the food and feeding 

 in, the stable. 



4. Abrupt changes in food, housing or other conditions may 

 apparently influence the tendency to the disease. In the other 

 members of this group of diseases we recognize very clearly the 

 effect of psychic influences, such as removing the young from 

 the mother or bringing the mother and her young into the pres- 



