272 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



tar " putting it into the mouth of the sheep with a flattened stick." 

 Abundance of salt is considered, and probably truly, a preventive. 1 

 have a sheep pasture considerably infested with this difficultly extermi* 

 nated weed, and I do not recollect an instance of a sheep exhibiting the 

 effects of eating it, in several years. It is certain that my sheep have 

 plenty of salt, whether this is the preventive or not. 



SORE MOUTH. The lips of sheep sometimes become suddenly sore it 

 the winter, and swell to the thickness of a man's hand. The malady 

 occasionally attacks whole flocks, and becomes quite fatal. No cases of 

 it having been bn-ught under my observation, I am unable to state 

 whether, in accordance with the popular description, the lesions are con- 

 fined to the lips. I should presume not. It is usually attributed to 

 noxious weeds cut with the hay. 



Treatment. Mr. Morrell states that he has had the d'.sease in his flock, 

 and has cured it immediately by smearing the diseased lips with tar.* 



Loss OF CUD. The " loss of the cud" ranks as an important disease in 

 the nosology of the " Cattle Doctor," and frequently calls forth all the skill 

 of that functionary to manufacture a new cud, which is placed in the 

 mouth of the animal as a substitute for the one which was lost!. That 

 person must be little versed in the physiology of ruminants who needs to 

 be told that the accidental loss of one of the cuds, in the process of re- 

 mastication, would be a matter of no sort of consequence. The sheep, 

 as well as the cow, not unfrequently nearly or entirely ceases to ruminate 

 but this is the result, not the cause, of disease. It is diagnostic of all 

 important diseases, and when observed, its warning should never go un- 

 heeded. 



HOOVE. This is not common, to any dangerous degree, among sheep, 

 but if turned upon clover when their stomachs are empty, it will some- 

 times ensue. It is a distention of the paunch by gas extricated from 

 the fermentation of its vegetable contents, and evolved more rapidly, or in 

 larger quantities, than can be neutralized by the natural alkaline secretions 

 of the stomach. When the distention is great, the blood is prevented 

 from circulating in the vessels of the rumen, and is determined to the 

 head. The diaphragm is mechanically obstructed from making its ordi- 

 nary contractions, and respiration, therefore, becomes difficult and imper- 

 fect. Death soon supervenes. In ordinary cases, gentle but prolonged 

 driving will effect a cure. Where the animal appears swelled almost to 

 bursting, and is disinclined to move, it is better to at once open tho 

 paunch. At the most protuberant point of the swelling, on the left side, 

 a little below the hip bone, plunge a trochar or knife, sharp at the point 

 and dull on the edge, into the stomach. The gas will rapidly escape, car- 

 rying with it some of the liquid and solid contents of the stomach. If no 

 measures are taken to prevent it, the peristaltic motion, as well as the 

 collapse of the stomach, will soon cause the orifices through the abdomen 

 and paunch not to coincide, and thus portions of the contents of the former 

 will escape into the cavity of the latter. However perfect the cure of 

 hoove, these substances in the belly will ultimately produce fatal irritation. 

 To prevent this, a canula or little tube should be inserted through both 

 orifices as soon as the puncture is made. Where the case is not imminent, 

 alkalies have been sometirres successfully administered, which combine 



* American Shepherd, p. 373. 



