SHEEP— CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 



posure to cold. For sheep generally — 

 and more'particularly for lambs — we once 

 repeat it, and we would impress it on the 

 mind of the farmer and the practitioner, 

 shelter and comfort are the first and grand 

 things to be considered. I do not mean 

 confinement in a close and ill-ventilated 

 place, but that defence from the wind and 

 snow which it would cost the farmer little 

 to raise, and for which he would be amply 

 paid in one season. If it probably arises 

 from cold, the remedy is plain — better 

 shelter, and, for a few days, housing. 



It is sometimes attributable to want of 

 proper support. The ewe, if it be her first 

 lamb, may have deserted it, or she may 

 have little milk to give it ; and the com- 

 bined influence of starvation and cold 

 produces diarrhcea sooner than anything 

 else. Warmth and new cow's milk are 

 good remedies, but the best method to 

 cure or prevent is to give them daily a 

 few messes of wheat in the sheaf; a regu- 

 lar quantity of salt at all times. If it oc- 

 curs in the winter, steep, in brine, ripe 

 hay, in the seed; wheat chaff is good, as 

 is a small quantity of oats, and a few pine 

 or hemlock tops. Keep them a few days 

 on ripe hay or corn fodder. 



Not unfrequently the mother's milk 

 seems to disagree with the lamb. It is 

 naturally aperient. It may occasionally 

 be too much so. If her teats are full, and 

 she evidently has plenty of milk, this will 

 probably be the case. She should be fed 

 on dry meat for a day or two, or should 

 be turned out only during the day, and 

 housed at night, when she should be 

 •allowed a little hay. While the food is 

 altered the bowels should be well 

 cleansed. There may be something 

 amiss about the ewe, which causes the 

 milk to be thus purgative and unwhole- 

 some. The best purgative for sheep is 

 the Purging Drink. (See No. 66, Domes- 

 tic Animals, Medicines for.) 



This being given to the mother will 

 will likewise be of service to the lamb, by 

 helping to carry off any acidities or crudi- 

 ties from the stomach or bowels. 



In a disease so fatal, and which runs its 

 •course so rapidly no time is to be lost, and 

 therefore Astringent Medicine (see No. 

 ■67, Domestic Animals, Medicines 

 for,) should be administered to the lamb 

 as speedily as possible. 



If the animal should still linger on, and 



the purging should not be much abated, 

 it is probable that the milk of the mother 

 is most in fault. The lamb should then 

 be taken from her, and fed with cow's 

 milk boiled, to every pint of which a 

 scruple of prepared chalk has been added, 

 the astringent drink being continued as 

 before. 



If the purging abates, the medicine 

 should be immediately suspended, or not 

 given so frequently, lest costiveness should 

 follow, a disease which we shall presently 

 describe, and which is also very fatal. 



The lamb with diarrhcea should be 

 docked on the first appearance of the 

 disease, if the operation had not been 

 previously performed, and the hair 

 should be carefully cut away under the 

 tail, otherwise it is liable to become clot- 

 ted. It will adhere together, and form 

 an obstruction about the anus, so that the 

 faeces cannot be discharged. The least 

 ill consequence of this will be very great 

 soreness about the part; but in many 

 cases the animal will die in consequence 

 of the obstruction, before the existence of 

 it is suspected. 



The color of the discharge will con- 

 siderably influence the mode of treatment. 

 If it is of an olive-green color, the drink 

 should be persevered in; and on every 

 third day half a table-spoonful of castor 

 oil should be administered. If this is of 

 a white color, it may probably proceed 

 from coagulation of the milk, and should 

 be treated as advised in a previous page. 



If the lamb is two or three months old, 

 the medicine should be correspondingly 

 increased, and he has a better chance. Ir 

 he is five or six months old, he will only 

 be lost through the negligence of the 

 farmer or attendant. The same means 

 must be pursued ; but another thing must 

 be added, and that of the greatest im- 

 portance — a change of pasture from a 

 succulent to a bare and dry one. The 

 removal to a stubble-field is a frequent 

 and very successful practice. 



LAMBS, Costiveness in. — When no 

 evacuation appears to be effected, but the 

 animal is continually straining, two cir- 

 cumstances must be carefully examined 

 into ; first, whether there is the obstruc- 

 tion of which we have just spoken, ut- 

 terly preventing the discharge of the 

 dung, and a speedy remedy being at 

 at hand, namely, the removal of the clot- 



