CLOSED TEATS UNEASINESS INFLAMED UDDER. 157 



As already said, there should be no hasty interference 

 with a new-bom lamb, if it appears to be doing well. But if, 

 on making the usual effort, it fails to obtain a supply of milk, 

 the ewe should at once be examined. The natural flow of 

 milk does not always, particularly in young ewes, commence 

 immediately after lambing, though in a few hours it may be 

 abundant. In this case the lamb should be fed, in the mean- 

 time, artificially. If from the smallness of the udder or other 

 indications, there is a prospect that the supply of milk will be 

 permanently small, the ewe should be separated from the 

 flock and nursed with better feed, as mentioned in preceding 

 Chapter. Some careful flock-masters separate from the flock 

 all the two-year-old breeding ewes, and all the old and weak 

 ones, either a few days before, or immediately after lambing, 

 and give them feed especially intended to promote the 

 secretion of milk. 



CLOSED TEATS. Sometimes when a ewe has a full 

 udder of milk the opening of the teats are so firmly closed 

 that the lamb can not force them open. The pressure of the 

 human fingers, lubricated with spittle to prevent chafing or 

 straining the skin, will readily remove the difficulty. If the 

 teat has been cut off by the shearer and has healed up so as to 

 leave no opening, it should be re-opened with a needle, and 

 this followed by inserting a small, smooth, round-ended wire, 

 heated sufficiently to cauterize the parts very moderately. 

 Neither of these should enter the teat but a little way 

 barely sufficient to permit the milk to flow out. The sucking 

 of the lamb will generally keep the orifice open but it may 

 require a little looking to and the application of something 

 calculated to allay inflammation. 



UNEASINESS. A young ewe, owing partly, perhaps, to 

 the novelty of her situation, and partly sometimes either to 

 her excessive fondness for, or indifference toward her lamb, 

 will not stand for it to suck. As soon as it makes the 

 attempt, she will turn about to caress it, or will step a little 

 away. In cold weather, she may thus interpose a dangerous 

 delay to its feeding. If she is caught and held by the neck 

 until the udder is once well drawn out, she will generally 

 require no further attention. 



^ INFLAMED UDDER. But a ewe that refuses thus to stand 

 will sometimes be found to have a hot, hard, inflamed or 



