206 SHEEP : BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



than such neating foods as swedes, peas, and linseed cake. 

 The udders of affected ewes should be freely lanced and 

 drawn, and the lambs in such cases must be hand fed. " A 

 saline aperient, such as a little Epsom salts, combined with 

 some aromatic, as aniseed or coriander seed, may be given to 

 the ewes at the outset, and this should be followed by the 

 administration of a little powdered columba root and salt in 

 the manger food twice daily. As a dressing for the udder a 5 

 per cent, solution of carbolic acid applied morning and evening 

 will assist in healing wounds and dispersing the eruption, or 

 what is equally efficacious, a weak solution of alum. The 

 mouths of the lambs should be washed both inside and out 

 with a solution of chlorate of potash of the strength of 10 

 grains to the ounce, using just sufficient to moisten the 

 surface without allowing any to be swallowed. When proud 

 flesh appears on the lips or gums it should be promptly 

 touched with lunar caustic, and any teeth which may become 

 loose should be removed." Youatt recommends that the 

 mouth should be washed two or three times a week with solu- 

 tion of alum, or diluted tincture of myrrh, and a couple of 

 ounces of Epsom salts should be administered. He also 

 describes under the same heading a similar disease which 

 attacks " lambs oftener than full-grown sheep ; and sucking 

 lambs more frequently than those that are weaned. It is 

 attributed to various causes, as feeding among the stubbles, or 

 on stony ground, or the teats of the mother being chapped or 

 filthy. The application of a little mercurial ointment, very 

 much lowered with lard, or of the common sulphur ointment 

 with a twelfth part of mercurial, will speedily effect a cure." 

 Youatt also points out a curious coincidence between thrush in 

 the mouth and foot-rot, and suggests that possibly the sheep 

 may have rubbed the diseased foot with his muzzle or licked it, 

 and thus communicated the disease to the mouth. What is 

 known among shepherds as " evil" is no doubt a similar if not 

 identical disease. It is seen affecting lambs and sheep of 

 greater age, such as ewes, and appears as an eruption around 



