174 Agricultural Journal of Victoria. 



ANIMAL PARASITES. 



• By A. A. Brou-n, M.B., B.8. 

 No. VIII. 



Lung Worms in Sheep. 



Lung worms when present in large numbers may cause the death 

 of lambs by blocking up the windpipe and bronchial tubes. The air, 

 when the tubes are blocked, cannot enter the lungs in sufficient 

 quantity, and the animals die of suffocation. The worms may also set 

 up, by the irritation they occasion, inflammation of the lungs. A large 

 amount of secretion is found in the bronchial tubes of infested lungs, 

 and in this secretion large numbers of the worms are present. This 

 excessive secretion also assists in blocking up the air passages and 

 aggravating the symptoms. 



Tbbatment. 



Treatment will not avail much when the worms have surrounded 

 themselves with fibrous capsules, or when they have taken up their 

 residence in the finer bronchial tubes. Not much chance of cure is 

 then to be expected from the internal administration of drugs. Drugs, 

 which might be effective when brought into direct contact with the 

 worms, are valueless in the treatment of a disorder where their action 

 can only be of remote application. 



As a rule the drugs used to destroy parasites owe their virtue to 

 their local action. When they come into direct contact with a parasite 

 they either kill it outright or paralyse it so that it releases its hold of 

 the mucous membrane to which it had attached itself. Santonin, for 

 example, when given with proper precautions, readily causes the death 

 of round worms inhabiting the intestinal tract. Bisulphide of carbon 

 kills parasites inhabiting the stomach. Upon the pathology of the 

 condition depends the treatment. If the worms are lodged in fibrous 

 nests, or have gained the remotest ramifications of the bronchial tubes, 

 no treatment can effect much benefit. As it is, of course, impossible in 

 any individual case to decide the pathology whilst the creature is still 

 living, it may not be inadvisable to give such expectorants as carbonate 

 of ammonia and ipecacuanha in ordey to see whether their adminis- 

 tration will bring about relief or assist in cure. Inhalations of 

 ammonia provoke coughing, and thus aid the expulsion of both the 

 retained secretions and the worms. If the lambs affected with luug 

 worm are valuable, the best treatment would consist in the adminis- 

 tration of carbonate of ammonia, 10 to 15 grains thrice daily, and also 

 in daily submitting the animals to the fumes of sulphur. A well-built 

 stable or suitable room of any kind should be used for the 

 purpose of storing up the sulphurous fumes. All cracks and 

 ventilation apertures should be blocked ^^up. Sulphur moistened 



