46 Farmers’ Bulletin 1150. 
from the digestive tract and return by way of the lungs again before 
developing to maturity. 
Distribution.—This parasite is common in sheep in the Southern 
States and has been found as far north as New York. Additional 
studies in various localities would doubtless show a wider distribu- 
tion. It is apparently fairly common in Europe. 
Symptoms and lesions.—The symptoms resulting from infestation 
with the sheep hookworm have not received much attention, but its 
habits are similar to those of the hookworm in man and in the dog, 
and these are known to cause very serious damage, so that there can 
be little question as to the damage that hookworm may do in sheep. 
The worms are bloodsuckers, with the habit of attaching for some 
time at one place and then moving to another, leaving the first punc- 
ture still bleeding. This bleeding persists for some time, as the result 
of a secretion from the mouth parts of the worm which has the power 
to dissolve the blood corpuscles and prevent clotting. 
With hookworms in general it is not uncommon to see 10 or 12 
hemorrhages associated with a single worm. This loss of blood - 
results in its impoverishment, as well as in a net loss in amount of 
blood present. This in turn causes a seepage of the thinned blood 
out of the blood vessels and into the tissues, causing watery swell- 
ings, or edema, of the pendant portions of the body, as well as an 
associated condition, or dropsy, within the body. With the impoy- 
erishment of the blood the nutrition of the animal is impaired—a 
a very serious matter with young animals. We may safely infer that 
there is serious damage to the sheep’s nervous system, preventing its 
smooth functioning and making for poor animals and poor offspring. 
The things that may be looked for in connection with hookworm 
disease are paleness of the mucous lining of the eyelids and mouth, 
pale skin, dry wool, watery swellings under the jaw and along the 
abdomen, and a general condition of unthriftiness. The condition 
is very similar to that found in stomach-worm disease, as the two 
worms affect the host animal in substantially the same way. As it 
is usually complicated with stomach-worm disease, hookworm infes- 
tation is not apt to be recognized as a distinct disease. The only way 
to make a satisfactory diagnosis between the two conditions is by a 
post-mortem examination of the fourth stomach and the small in- 
testine in order to ascertain which of the worms is present. In 
some cases both species of worms will be found and the results may 
be attributed to the mixed infestation. The lesions caused by the 
hookworm are red spots, or small hemorrhages, in the small intes- 
tine, while similar spots in the fourth stomach are caused by stomach 
worms. 
Treatment.—Oil of chenopodium (American wormseed oil) in 
doses of about 1 dram (1 teaspoonful) in about 5 ounces of milk 
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