This is by no means of so common occurrence in the case of the sow as in
many other of the domesticated animals. Various causes tend to produce
it: insufficiency of food, eating too much succulent vegetable food, or
unwholesome, unsubstantial diet; blows and falls; and the animal's habit
of rubbing itself against hard bodies, for the purpose of allaying the
irritation produced by the vermin or cutaneous eruptions to which it is
subject. Reiterated copulation does not appear to produce abortion in
the sow; at least to the extent it does in other animals.
The symptoms indicative of approaching abortion are similar to those of
parturition, but more intense. There are, generally, restlessness,
irritation, and shivering; and the cries of the animal evince the
presence of severe labor-pains. Sometimes the rectum, vagina, or
uterus, becomes relaxed, and one or the other protrudes, and often
becomes inverted at the moment of the expulsion of the f[oe]tus,
preceded by the placenta, which presents itself foremost.
Nothing can be done, at the last hour, to prevent abortion; but, from
the first, every predisposing cause should be removed. The treatment
will depend upon circumstances. Where the animal is young, vigorous, and
in high condition, bleeding will be beneficial--not a copious
blood-letting, but small quantities taken at different times; purgatives
may also be administered. If, when abortion has taken place, the whole
of the litter was not born, emollient injections may be resorted to with
considerable benefit; otherwise, the after treatment should be made the
same as in parturition, and the animal should be kept warm, quiet, and
clean, and allowed a certain degree of liberty. Whenever one sow has
aborted, the causes likely to have produced this accident should be
sought, and an endeavor made, by removing them, to secure the rest of
the inmates of the piggery from a similar mishap.
In cases of abortion, the f[oe]tus is seldom born alive, and often has
been dead for some days; where this is the case--which may be readily
detected by a peculiarly unpleasant putrid exhalation, and the discharge
of a fetid liquid from the vagina--the parts should be washed with a
diluted solution of chloride of lime, in the proportion of one part of
chloride to three parts of water, and a portion of this lotion gently
injected into the uterus, if the animal will submit to it. Mild doses of
Epsom salts, tincture of gentian, and Jamaica ginger, will also act
beneficially in such cases, and, with attention to diet, soon restores
the animal.