Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

ATTENTION AFTER CALVING. 399
the foetus has been wounded or broken, and considerable inflammation
and fever have been set up, she will probably die : but if she is no
more exhausted than may be naturally expected, and the fever is
slight, .and she eats a little, she should not be abandoned. •
Mr. King relates an instructive case of this kind :—A few years
ago I was called to see a heifer which appeared to be rather losing
condition, and which had been observed occasionally to void some
offensive matter from the vagina. Before I could get to her, some
portion of a calf's fore-extremity came away. The owner was very apprehensive
of her not doing well, and earnestly pressed the extraction
of the remainder of the fostus. On examination, I found the os uteri
so small and contracted, that I could not pass my hand ; and as the
beast ate and drank, and was so little, either locally or constitutionally,
disturbed, I persuaded him to leave her to nature, watching her
in case of assistance being required. He consented, and, by degrees,
and in detached portions, the greater part, or perhaps the whole of
the calf (she was not confined) came away, and she did well, and
became fat.
The same gentleman relates another case : A cow, healthy, fine,
and fat, was slaughtered. The uterus was found to contain the skeleton
of a calf almost entire, all the soft parts having separated, and
wholly escaped. Nothing of her history was known. There is an
instance on record of the head of a calf (all the other parts having
passed away unobserved) being retained in the womb eighteen
months. Pains resembling those of parturition then came on. The
veterinary surgeon, on examination, detected a hard -round body
which he mistook for a calculus, and which was so firmly imbedded
in the womb that he was compelled to have recourse to a bistoury
in order to detatch it. In a fortnight she seemed to be well.
ATTENTION AFTER CALVING.
Parturition having been accomplished, the cow should be left
the licking and cleaning of which, if it be soon
quietly with the calf ;
discharged, will employ and amuse her. It is a cruel thing to separate
the mother from the young so soon ; the cow will pine, and
will be deprived of that medicine which nature designed for her in
the moisture which hangs about the calf ; and the calf will lose that
gentle friction and motion which helps to give it the immediate use
of all its limbs, and which increases the languid circulation of the
blood, and produces a genial warmth in the half exhausted and chilled
little animal. A warm mash should be put before her, and warm
gruel, or water from which some of the coldness has been taken off.
Two or three hours afterwards it will be prudent to give an aperient
drink consisting of a pound of Epsom salts and two drachms of ginger.
This may'tend to prevent milk fever and garget in the udder.
Attention should likewise be paid to the state of the udder. If the