624 MANAGEMENT OF SHEEP ON ARABLE LAND 



Inversion of the uterus (commonly called the " lamb-bed," 

 or in Gloucestershire the " wither " or " wether ") is thus 

 prevented. When protrusion occurs, the exposed part should 

 be washed with tepid water cooled after boiling, and a wine- 

 glassful of laudanum per pint added, as cold water is liable 

 to give pain, and, while the ewe is held up by the heels, 

 pressed gently back into its proper position, with the hand 

 held flat, care being taken not to pierce the organ with the 

 fingers. The oil should in such a case have a few drops of 

 laudanum put into it to help to soothe and to allay the 

 irritation. To retain it in its position, a i-inch mesh net 

 made of strong twine may be put on the top of the wool 

 round the hips and covering the tail, the ends passing along 

 the sides of the ewe, and terminating in fastenings to a rope 

 tied round the heart-girth, after the fashion of the cow- 

 breeches described at p. 338. If a net be not at hand, locks 



FIG. 49. NET BREECHES FOR A EWE. 



of wool can be tied tightly across from hip to hip, or the 

 lips of the vulva may be stitched together. The last, though 

 successful, seems a cruel and drastic remedy, but it should 

 be remembered that while the womb protrudes the pain is 

 acute and the life of the animal is in danger. The ewe 

 should be separated from her lamb, kept quiet, and given 

 a drench containing laudanum and whisky. 



Inflammation after lambing, or septic metritis, is a fatal 

 enzootic disease which occurs in sheep from three to twenty- 

 four hours after lambing, and runs its course in three to eight 

 days. Ewes which survive that period usually recover, but 

 the lambs of those which suffer are liable to "joint-ill" or 

 " navel-ill." Both are aggravated by, if they are not originally 

 traceable to, the unclean state of the lambing-pen. " The 

 symptoms are loss of appetite, high fever, constipation followed 

 by diarrhoea, colicky pains, brown-coloured discharge from 



