332 PARTURIENT FEVER. 



vegetables growing luxuriantly, and the non-supply of dry, 

 farinaceous food, are alike productive of the affection. Fat 

 condition is thought to be a grand cause of the disease. I 

 certainly have noticed that the Sussex Downs (a breed most 

 disposed to collect fat,) suffer most ; and, as I before stated, a 

 delicate sheep ; but losses have been sustained from the fact 

 that the breeder, thinking them too fat, a short time before 

 the full period of gestation lessens the supply of food, which 

 is plentiful and nutritious, and substitutes that of a poorer 

 nature. *** ****** 



" Symptoms, The most early symptom that marks the 

 commencement of this disease first the ewe suddenly leaves 

 her food, twitches both hind-legs and ears, and returns again 

 to her food; during the next two or three days she eats but 

 little, appears dull and stupid ; after this time there is a 

 degree of general weakness, loss of appetite and giddiness, 

 and a discharge of dark color from the vagina ; whilst the 

 flock is driven from fold to fold the affected sheep loiters 

 behind and staggers in her gait, the head is carried downward, 

 and the eyelids partly closed. If parturition takes place 

 during this stage of the disease, and the animal is kept warm 

 and carefully nursed, recovery will frequently take place in 

 two or three days ; if, on the contrary, no relief is afforded, 

 symptoms of a typhoid character present themselves ; the 

 animal is found in one corner of the fold, the head down, 

 and extremely uneasy, the body is frequently struck with the 

 hind feet, a dark colored fetid discharge continues to flow 

 from the vagina, and there is great prostration of strength. 

 A pair of lambs are now often expelled in a high state of 

 putrefaction ; and the ewe down and unable to rise, the head is 

 crouching upon the ground, and there is extreme insensibility ; 

 the skin may be punctured and the finger placed under the 

 eyelids without giving any evidence of pain ; the animal now 

 rapidly sinks and dies, often in three or four days from 

 the commencement of the attack. Ewes that recover suffer 

 afterward for some time great weakness, and many parts of 

 the body become denuded of wool. 



" Treatment. The ewe immediately noticed ill should be 

 removed from the flock to a warm fold apart from all other 

 sheep, and be fed with oatmeal gruel, bruised oats and cut 

 hay, with a little linseed cake. If in two or three days the 

 patient continues ill, is dull and weak, a dark colored fetid 

 discharge from the vagina, and apparently uneasy, an attempt 

 to remove the lambs should be made. The lambs in a great 



