198 DISEASES OP YOUNG LAMBS. 



cles down an inch or more from the scrotum, and then to cut through 

 the cord close to the scrotum with a knife tliat is not very sharp. 

 Scarcely a drop of blood follows when the cord is thus separated ; 

 the end of the cord retracts into the bag, and there is not half the 

 danger of inflammation which there is when the cord is gnawed and 

 torn by the teeth. 



Except the lambs are very weakly, and the ewes much exhausted 

 and emaciated, it will not be requisite to give any medicine after 

 yeaning. In the great majority of cases the animals will do a great 

 deal better without it. Should, however, tonic medicine be necessary, 

 I know nothing better than the following: — 



RECIPE (No. 1). 

 Take gentian root, powdered, one drachm; caraway powder, lialf a drachm; tinc- 

 ture of caraway, ten drops. Give in a quarter of a pint of thick gruel. 



If the ewes will not feed well at all, they should be forced with 

 good gruel, and the best is made of equal parts of oat and linseed 

 meal. 



SECTION II. 



THE DISEASES OF YOUNG LAIIBS. 



These are numerous, and many of them dangerous ; some belong- 

 ing exclusively to the period which I have been describing, and others 

 often occurring when the animals get a little older. 



COAGULATION OF THE MILK. 



I have spoken of this when treating of the diseases of calves. The 

 lamb is, if possible, more subject to this curdling of the milk than 

 the calf is, and it carries off the finest and best of the flock. The 

 farmer likes to see his lambs growing fast ; but it is possible to make 

 more haste than good speed. The lamb may have excess of nutri- 

 ment, and particularly of its mother's milk. When a lamb thrives at 

 an extraordinary rate, the bag of the mother should be examined, and 

 if it is too large and full, it will be prudent to milk away daily a little 

 of its contents ; otherwise the yet weak stomach of the young animal 

 may have more coagulated milk in it than it can digest. All the milk 

 that is swallowed by the young lamb coagulates in the stomach, and 

 if it accumulates too fast, the stomach will become perfectly choked 

 with it, and the lamb will be destroyed. Two pounds of curdled milk 

 have been found in the stomach of a lamb. When a thriving lamb, 

 with a healthy mother having a full bag, begins all at once to be dull, 

 and stands panting and distressed, and can scarcely be induced to 

 move, and is considerably swelled, it is probably from this cause. 



In this disease there is often apparent purging of a light colour, 



