THEIR CAUSES, NATURE, AND PREVENTION. 189 



a few days is mortified by seeing them die from loupiiig-ill, 

 swung-back (paralysis), joint-ill, or so called navel-ill. 



Cold and wet are especially injurious to parturient sheep and 

 newly-born lambs ; and, if possible, lambing ewes should always 

 be placed in dry situations ; or, if practicable, housed either by 

 night or by day, or both, according to circumstances : and I 

 wcaild jDai'ticularly impress the fact upon all breeders, that 

 if the system of an animal is depressed by debilitating and 

 lowering influences it only requires that some existing cause 

 such as this shall come into operation to call a latent disease 

 into existence : it is " the last straw that breaks the camel's 

 back." Low forms of inflammation and congestion of the lungs, 

 bronchitis especially, are induced by cold and wet in all animals 

 whose systems are debilitated or whose blood is poor. 



Parturition is a prolific predisposing and exciting cause of 

 disease as at this period of an animal's life there is a stage of great 

 excitement followed by a corresponding degree of depression ; 

 but, in addition, there is a large quantity of waste matter to be 

 got rid of from the womb, and the system has to regain its original 

 state ; and all this at the expense of the constitution. 



There are many agencies of an adverse character against 

 which an animal would successfully do battle under ordinary 

 circumstances that overcome the vital energy when depressed 

 b}' the lowering influences of parturition ; especially is the 

 system incapable of fighting against the effects of putrefactive 

 (septic) organisms or their products, and the former lodging in 

 the unhealthy fluids in the womb — which form a favourable 

 pabulum for their growth — easily gain access to the circulation 

 through tissues weakened by being supplied with impure 

 or impoverished blood ; the result is blood poisoning (septi- 

 casmia), septic inflammation of the womb, of the bowels, or of 

 the udder and death not only of the mother but of the lamb ; 

 the latter giving evidence also of septic inflammation of the 

 umbilical vessels (navel-ill), and putrefactive diseases of the 

 joints, much of which may be prevented by tying the cord at 

 birth and by appljdng an antiseptic thereto. 



Not only during the rutting season, but onwards through the 

 period of lamb-bearing, at the time of parturition and in the 

 subsequent nursing, is great care in management demanded and 

 a sufficiency of nourishing food required in order to prevent loss 

 and disappointment. 



Excitement is up to a certain point good for all animals, but 

 there are few in which it may with greater ease be pushed 

 to excess than in the sheep ; it is especially to be guarded 

 against in the case of in-lamb ewes, as it is frequently an 

 exciting cause to the development of latent disease and often 

 causes premature birth. 



