208 



SHEEP— DISEASES AND REMEDIES. 



The bowels, which are variable at first, 

 become at length very relaxed. A fetid 

 purging comes on of all colors, and 

 which pursues its course in defiance of 

 every astringent. 



The wool begins to fall off in patches ; 

 it is loose all over the animal, and easily 

 pulled off, and there is a white scurfiness 

 adhering to its roots. The disease now 

 still more rapidly proceeds; and while 

 the sheep loses flesh every day, and every 

 rib and every bone of the back can be 

 plainly felt, his belly increases — he gets 

 dropsical. The end is not then far off. 



The progress of the disease is more or 

 less rapid, according to the violence of 

 the attack, or the strength or weakness 

 of the sheep, or the care that is bestowed 

 on him, or the utter neglect to which he 

 is abandoned. The animal occasionally 

 dies in two months after the first evident 

 symptom of rot, but usually four or five 

 or six months elapse before the animal is 

 perfectly exhausted. 



The farmer is not much accustomed to 

 examine his sheep after death. It would 

 be better for him if he paid more atten- 

 tion to this, for he would discover the 

 nature, and probably the cause, of many 

 a complaint that is committing sad rav- 

 ages in his flock. The appearances ex- 

 hibited in the sheep that has died of the 

 rot are very singular. There appears to 

 be dropsy, not only in the belly, but all 

 over the animal. Wherever the knife is 

 used, a yellow watery fluid runs out ; and 

 the consequence of the existence of this 

 fluid everywhere is, that the muscles, and 

 that which should be firm, honest fat, are 

 yielding, and flabby, and unwholesome. 

 When the belly and chest are opened, 

 the heart is pale, and soft, and flabby, 

 and often to such a degree that we 

 wonder how it could have continued to 

 discharge its duty. The lungs are more 

 or less gorged with blood ; and there are 

 a great many hard knotty points, of 

 various sizes (tubercles) in them and on 

 them, some of which have probably 

 broken, and the lungs are full of ulcers ; 

 or when this is not the case, the lungs 

 are studded with innumerable little knotty 

 points of a dark color. 



The principal disease, however, is in 

 the liver, which is much enlarged, often 

 of double its natural size, broken down 

 by the slightest touch, sometimes black 



from inflammation and congested blood, 

 and at other times of an unhealthy livid- 

 ness ; but that which is most remarkable, 

 which is characteristic of the disease, 

 is, that its vessels are filled with flukes, 

 curiously-shaped things like little soles, 

 which are swimming about in the bile in 

 every duct, and burrowing into every part 

 of the liver. Several hundreds of them 

 are sometimes contained in one liver. A 

 few of them may occasionally be found 

 in the upper part of the intestines, but 

 rhere only. 



The upper part of the liver is frequently 

 speckled like the body of a toad ; indeed 

 this has been so often remarked, that the 

 examiner, if he does not find flukes, and 

 sometimes when he does, looks out for 

 the toad's liver. The liver is so diseased 

 and corrupted, that if an attempt is made 

 to boil it, instead of becoming hardened, 

 it falls all to pieces, or is in a manner 

 dissolved. Abscesses are oftener found 

 in the liver than in the lungs, and to an 

 extent sufficient to destroy the sheep 

 without any other cause. Sometimes 

 there are knots in the liver as well as in 

 the lungs — small, round, hardened lumps 

 — and in a few cases they are so numer- 

 ous that it is almost impossible to find a 

 sound part. 



If the farmer would accustom himself 

 to observe these things, and carefully 

 examine every sheep that dies in the 

 autumn, he would sometimes detect the 

 existence of this disease in his flock 

 before he would otherwise have been 

 aware of it. Nay, he should not confine 

 his examination to this, but should ob- 

 serve the appearance of the inside of 

 every sheep which he may kill for the use 

 of his family about that time. It should 

 be a practice never omitted, and however 

 seemingly healthy the animal may die, 

 whatever quantity of suet may cover the 

 kidneys, if the liver is dappled with white 

 spots, or if the vessels of the liver are 

 thickened, and if there are flukes, how- 

 ever small, floating about in the bile, that 

 sheep was certainly rotted; and if one 

 sheep is rotted, the greater part of the 

 remainder will probably follow. Aware 

 of this, and at this early period of the 

 disease, the grazier may, either by hasten- 

 ing the fattening process, or shifting the 

 pasture, or adopting medical treatment, 

 put many scores of pounds into his. 



