218 THE SHEPHERD'S MANUAL. 



should be given. The body may be swathed in a rag dipped in 

 hot water, to which an ounce of ammonia water has been added. 

 On recovery, the food should be generally improved in character, 

 and a daily dose of one scruple of sulphate of copper may be 

 given with some meal, or mixed with molasses and placed on the 

 tongue. This disease is the most frequent one of the kind from 

 which our flocks suffer. 



is a very similar disease to the preceding. It occurs 

 chiefly in young or poor sheep which are turned out to feed early 

 in the morning when the herbage is covered with hoar-frost or 

 snow. The rumen being chilled, causes the blood to determine to 

 the brain, and the animal becomes convulsed. No treatment can 

 avail anything, but prevention is everything. 



Lockjaw, which is a violent excitement of the nervous system, 

 sometimes occurs in consequence of exposure to wet and cold, and 

 sometimes in consequence of injury to the nerves through the vio- 

 lent twisting of the spermatic cord and vessels in the operation of 

 castration. The jaws are closed, but can be moved laterally, and 

 there is grinding of the teeth ; the head is bent round, the neck 

 twisted, and one or more of the limbs are rigid. In this condition 

 the sheep may remain a day and then die, or if it remain longer it 

 may recover. A warm bath, if the sheep is not too large, is use- 

 ful ; and the animal should be kept warm and in a quiet place. A 

 dose of two ounces of Epsom salts should be given, followed by 

 two drams of laudanum after two hours. Warm gruel, with a 

 quarter of an ounce of ginger, should be given two or three times 

 a day. Quiet and warmth are indispensable to a cure. 



Palsy. This disease consists in a total suspension of action in 

 the nervous system, generally in consequence of exposure to se- 

 vere cold and wet. Lambs that are thoroughly chilled by cold 

 rain and winds, or newly shorn sheep similarly exposed, are the 

 most frequent subjects. Ewes having been exhausted by pro- 

 tracted labor, or by abortion ; or newly dropped winter lambs, that 

 have been neglected, also suffer from it. Heavy feeding on man- 

 gels or watery roots has been known to produce it, and it has 

 been stated recently that roots grown upon land that has been 

 heavily dressed with superphosphate of lime, have produced this 

 complaint in several English flocks. It is very questionable if the 

 phosphate has any direct agency in producing it. The sheep suf- 

 fering from it lie totally helpless, the whole body being incapable 

 of movement, the respiration is almost stopped, and the eye is 

 dead looking and lifeless, the eyelids quivering occasionally. 



