158 DRYING OFF DISOWNING LAMBS. 



"caked" udder particularly if she is in high condition, and 

 lambs late in the season. In this case, the udder should be 

 fomented frequently for some time with hot water containing 

 a slight infusion of opium, obtained from the crude article, 

 from laudanum or from steeped poppy leaves. The oftener 

 the fomentation is repeated the sooner the inflammation will 

 subside and the proper flow of milk ensue. Repeated 

 washings with cold water will produce the same effect, but 

 less rapidly, and I think with a less favorable influence on the 

 subsequent secretions of milk. If a ewe has lost her lamb, and 

 from neglect the udder has become swollen and indurations 

 have formed in it, the iodine ointment is one of the best 

 applications. (For further particulars, see Garget, among 

 Diseases of Sheep.) 



DRYING OFF. If a grown ewe having a full udder of 

 milk loses her lamb, she should receive a foster lamb, or be 

 reserved to give temporary supplies of milk to the new-born 

 lambs requiring it. But if it becomes necessary to dry off a 

 ewe, even a young one not having much milk, she should, if 

 convenient, be fed on dry feed, and care taken to milk out 

 the udder as often as once a day for several days, and a few 

 times afterwards, as may appear necessary, at intervals of 

 increasing length. The daily application of an evaporant 

 say water with 15 grains of sugar of lead dissolved in a pint 

 would facilitate the process. I am satisfied that many of 

 the troubles shepherds experience in raising lambs are 

 produced or greatly increased by the very careless manner 

 in which ewes are habitually dried off. 



DISOWNING LAMBS. Ewes, and especially young or very 

 poor ones, or those which have been prostrated by difficult 

 parturition, occasionally refuse to own their lambs or are 

 exceedingly neglectful of them. When, notwithstanding, it 

 is advisable to compel the ewe to raise her lamb, both should 

 immediately be separated from the flock and placed in a small, 

 dark inclosure together, and if convenient out of hearing of 

 other sheep care being taken to hold the ewe, at first, as often 

 as five or six times a day for the lamb to suck. As soon as 

 she takes to it, she may be let out; but for a few days she 

 should be let out only with her lamb, and be closely watched, 

 for when she mixes with other sheep as soon as she regains 

 her liberty, her indifference sometimes returns. It is very 



