PROPER SANITATION AS A PREVENTIVE OF ABORTION.

New Zealand Mail, 27 August 1902, Page 51 (Supplement)

PROPER SANITATION AS A PREVENTIVE OF ABORTION.

There is' no subject connected with the keeping of cows that strikes home to the dairy farmer with deeper interest than the question: What can we do to prevent abortion? Unfortunately, there are a great many men in tlie business who are willing to buy medicine by the bucketful if that would do the work, but who are unwilling to put forth any effort scarcely, in the way of sanitary study cf the question. To surround the cow with conditions that will prevent, the growth, and spread of the germ, of abortion is what is meant by proper sanitation of stables. Mr H. S. Cook, one of the foremost dairymen of New York, in writing ’to the “Rural New Yorker,” confesses that he has been unable to find any medicine that will cure abortion, unless certain conditions are established, and chief among these is complete separation of the infected animal from the rest of the herd as soon as her condition is ascertained. He says:— Not a year passes hut isolated cases appear in summer and winter, but three to. five cows a year out of 100 do not seem serious. As soon as a case occurs, the animal is at once isolated until she appears normal again, and is treated with some of the carbolio preparations, of which there are many upon the market. The carbolic sheep dips furnish an example. The pen or stall is thoroughly disinfected each day, as is al&'o. the stable where the dairy is kept. How much significance we may safely attach to nervous or sympathetic abortion lam not prepared to say; in fact, I suppose one outside the veterinary profession ought not to discuss the question, but I

have observed frequently that the first case had none of the foul smelling, decomposed appearance found in contagious abortion. May we not therefore infer that isolation is the first factor in the treatment ?

Is it possible to prevent ? Very doubtful. It would seem that dishorning, careful driving and handling; a platform long enough to prevent the hind quarters from hanging over the gutter, and so constructed as to reduce slipping to a minimum; stock raised upon the farm, fed a raional • combination for growth and development, would reduce the trouble to a point where it might he compared in its effect on the total dairy loss, as the chemist does with the possible “error of analysis. Then, when it does come, use the previous. method, to which should be added the use only of warm water for drinking for at least a week, and, better still, for two weeks. 1 must say that 1 am not skilled, enough to remove the placenta as successfully as to allow nature to take its course, witli the warm stall, warm water and a ration laxative in its make up. and an occasional dose of one-half pound kpsonit salts. Keeping the bowels open is essential in the bovine, at all times when tho system is obliged to carry off foni, poisonous matter. Sanitation inside the_ animal, and sanitation for the surroundings means increased profits through better health. It will repay one to heed every opportunity to read or listen to anything having cleanliness cn its title page.