SHEEP— CARE AND MANAGEMENT 



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The greatest care must be taken that the 

 mother is not wounded, for that would 

 produce inevitable death. When the 

 lamb has been thus taken away piece- 

 meal, a little physic — an ounce of Epsom 

 salts, with a few grains of ginger — should 

 be given to the mother, who should then 

 be left undisturbed for several hours. 



The ewe, and especially if she was in 

 high condition, is occasionally subject to 

 after-pains. Some of the country peo- 

 ple call it heaving. It continues many 

 hours, and sometimes exhausts and de- 

 stroys the animal. It is particularly 

 dangerous if she has been too well kept, 

 and much force has been used in extract- 

 ing the lamb. Twenty drops of laudanum 

 should be given in a little gruel, and 

 repeated every second hour until the 

 pains abate. It will always be prudent 

 to bleed the ewe, if she is not better soon 

 after the second dose of the laudanum. 



The womb is sometimes forced out of 

 the orifice, when great force has been used 

 in extracting the lamb. It must, if neces- 

 sary, be cleaned with warm water, and 

 carefully returned by a person with a 

 small hand. Gentle and continued pres- 

 sure will effect this much sooner and 

 safer than the application of the greatest 

 force. It will, however, again protrude if 

 a couple of stitches, with tolerably strong 

 twine, are not passed through the lips of 

 the orifice. If the womb is thus returned 

 before it has been much bruised, or in- 

 flamed by hanging out, there will be little 

 danger to the mother, and she may suckle 

 her lamb as usual. When she has ac- 

 complished that, she should be fattened, 

 for the same accident would almost cer- 

 tainly happen at her next parturition. 



Attention should now be paid to the 

 lamb, and it requires it even more than 

 the mother. It is want of care that 

 causes the loss of more than four-fifths of 

 the dead lambs. The principal evil is 

 exposure to cold. If the weather is 

 severe, great numbers of lambs are often 

 lost in a single night. A few hurdles with 

 straw, or a warm quick hedge, or a shed 

 for them to go into, would save the 

 greater part of them. The farmer needs 

 but to use a little observation in order to 

 be convinced how eagerly the ewes and 

 the lambs seek that shelter, and how safe 

 they are compared with others that are 

 exposed. Some breeds are more hardy 



than others, but the hardiest of them will 

 not endure absurd and cruel neglect and 

 exposure. Let the farmer think of the 

 sudden change from the warmth of the 

 mother's womb to the driving sleet, and 

 the cold wet ground ; he will not wonder 

 that so many of his lambs are palsied 

 and starved to death. 



The lambs are not quite out of danger 

 when a day or two has passed after they 

 have dropped. They live for the first 

 week or fortnight on the mother's milk, 

 and then begin to imitate their parent and 

 graze a little ; indeed, they have not their 

 teeth up to enable them to graze at first. 

 They should not be put on too good pas- 

 ture at this early period, for the change 

 of food is often dangerous. A lamb of a 

 fortnight old will often sicken suddenly, 

 refuse the teat, cease to ruminate, swell, 

 heave, and die in less than twenty-four 

 hours. On being examined, the stomach 

 will sometimes be found enormously dis- 

 tended, at other times there will be little 

 food in it, but there always is a great deal 

 of bile in the upper intestines, with inflam- 

 mation there, the evident cause of death, 

 and produced by the change of food. 

 Those who die at this early period are 

 often called gall-lambs t from the great 

 quantity of bile found in their intestines. 

 When, at three or four months old, the 

 lamb is perfectly weaned, he is subject to 

 a similar complaint, and from a similar 

 cause. The lamb should certainly have 

 better pasture when he is deprived of his 

 mother's milk, but the change should not 

 be sudden or violent. 



Physic will evidently be required here, 

 such as Epsom salts in doses of half an 

 ounce every second or third day ; and if 

 there is much swelling, the stomach-pump 

 will be used with advantage, both in ex- 

 tracting the gas, and in injecting warm 

 water into the stomach with all intention 

 either to cause vomiting or to wash out 

 the contents of the stomach. 



The operation of castration is a very 

 simple one in the sheep, and yet is often 

 attended with danger — sometimes result- 

 ing from the unskilfulness of the operator, 

 and at other times from some unfriendly 

 state of the atmosphere. We have known 

 on the same farm, and the same gelder 

 being employed, that in one year not a 

 lamb has been lost, and in the following 

 year several scores. Generally speaking, 



