224 THE SHEPHERD'S MANUAL. 



previous year, and which had been top-dressed with manure from 

 the sheep sheds. Nineteen out of forty of the lambs died. The 

 f ollowing year twenty-three lambs died, and the post-mortem of the 

 physician showed the fact that the larynx and trachea were cov- 

 ered on their inner surface " with a frothy mucus, generally white, 

 but here and there of a yellowish hue," also in this mucus were 

 "several worm-like bodies about one-half a line in diameter, and 

 from one to two inches in length." Under the microscope these 

 proved to be articulates, some of which contained what seemed 

 to be ova. A microscopic examination of the mucus showed these 

 ova in various stages of development. The worm -like bodies were 

 undoubtedly the lung thread-worms under consideration. For 

 several years afterwards the lambs which pastured on the top- 

 dressed meadows took the disease and died. The symptoms which 

 indicate the presence of this worm are a loss of condition, a con- 

 stant and severe cough, a dropsical condition, as shown by the 

 watery tumor beneath the throat, and a pining and wasting away. 

 The skin is pale, and the eyes pearly, and bloodless. After death 

 there is no sign of disease, except the presence of the worms in the 

 lungs and windpipe, and complete emaciation. The means of 

 prevention are obvious. Pastures or meadows should not be top- 

 dressed with sheeps' manure unless they are to be plowed and 

 sown to grain crops, and if a pasture is found to be infected, it 

 should be plowed up and re-sown. All sheep having the charac- 

 teristic cough should be fattened and killed. 



The treatment proper in this case is the same as that recom- 

 mended for the liver fluke, and the mixture mentioned on page 

 222, should be administered as there stated. Turpentine and salt 

 are found to be almost sure remedies for internal parasites of all 

 kinds, and extra feeding to resist the draft upon the system will be 

 useful. 



Hydatids or Bladder -Worms. The association of the dog with 

 the sheep upon farms, is productive of much mischief in addition 

 to the vast annual slaughter of the latter occasioned thereby. The 

 great majority of dogs are infested with tape-worms. The eggs 

 of the tape-worms discharged in the dung of the dog upon fields 

 and pastures are swallowed by the sheep with the herbage, and the 

 larval state of the worms is developed within their bodies, either in 

 the lungs, the abdomen, or the brain, causing disease which is 

 often fatal. The larvae of the tape-worm exist in the shape of 

 watery bladders, or sacs, which contain the undeveloped worms. 

 These peculiar creatures are known as bladder- worms or hydatids. 



