412 



DISEASES OF THE GENITAL OBGAJSfS, 



mortality of 40 to 50 per cent., bat the figures mentioned hy 

 authors are quite different (Hering and Franck have found 40 per 

 cent. ; Kohne, 25 to 50 per cent. ; Saint-Cyr, 45 per cent. ; Stock- 

 fleth, 50 per cent. ; the statistics of Bavarian veterinarians give 48 

 per cent.). The convalescing animals succumb in the proportion 

 of about 10 per cent, to pneumonia by foreign bodies. The disease: 

 returns quite frequently. 



Differential diagnosis. The paresis of parturition being closely^ 

 related to delivery, could not be confounded with other morbid 

 states in gestation or parturition. It must be distinguished from 

 ante- or post-partum paraplegic weakness {festliegen). This, 

 disease, which sometimes complicates the first, consists in a lumbar 

 weakness occurring ordinarily a few weeks before parturition ; it 

 resists all treatment, disappearing of itself as soon as the puerperium 

 is at an end. 



We must be careful not to mistake for paralysis of parturition 

 the passive paraplegic symptoms which are consecutive to pain or 

 injury of the lumbar plexus and the nerves which arise from it. 

 In these affections the general state is not at all troubled, the tem- 

 perature is normal, the appetite continues, and the paralysis is 

 always localized. The symptoms of cerebral depression which one- 

 observes generally in puerperal septicemia some time before death 

 may be easily distinguished, at least in most cases, from paresis of 

 parturition. 



Treatment. The prophylactic indications must not be neglected. 

 Daily exercise is particularly recommended, also the reduction of 

 the ration and the administration of mild laxatives (sulphate of 

 soda) some time before parturition, the maintenance of perfect con- 

 ditions of temperature and ventilation. We should avoid all causes 

 of cold. For stabled animals, in which the disease is frequently 

 observed, Schmidt-Miihlheim advises a cleansing of the uterus after 

 parturition, with carbolic or boric solutions ; we should resort to it 

 even when the delivery has taken a normal course without any 

 intervention. These antiseptic washings must be followed by the 

 introduction into the uterus of a small quantity of iodoform pow- 

 der; for that purpose we use a glass tube attached to a rubber 

 bellows (a very simple apparatus which is readily constructed).. 

 According to some authors, iodoform is said to oppose the develop- 

 ment of specific toxic agents. The solution of cresol in J- or 1 per 

 cent, seems to us to be preferable to carbolized water. 



