318 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA 



fection. It is useless to dissect a sheep that has 

 been dead for some days, and even after the lapse 

 of a few hours there will often be misleading ap- 

 pearances, as of blood settling in one part or an- 

 other, that will cause him to form very curious con- 

 clusions as to the cause of death and miss the real 

 cause entirely. It would be amusing if it were not 

 so annoying to read the letters from sheep owners 

 attempting to describe the symptoms of their sick 

 sheep and the results found after making crude 

 post-mortem examination. 



Let us rest the case here; that only careful, reg- 

 ular and judicious feeding will prevent death in the 

 barn and feedlot and that medication for "water 

 belly" or retention of urine and for serious indi- 

 gestion has never yet proved of use. The fact is 

 that the sheep suffering from slight indigestion is 

 not readily detected among hundreds, and when its 

 case is obvious it is generally too far gone to be 

 helped by any known treatment whatever. 



OTHER DISEASES OF SHEEP. 



Of a long list of diseases that sheep may some- 

 times be afflicted with, such as rheumatism, apo- 

 plexy, goitre, pining, humping, erysipelas, actino- 

 mycosis, tetanus, rabies, .sheep pox, and a lot of 

 other diseases usually catalogued, the writer has 

 seldom seen an instance in his own flocks, and if he 

 had seen it would have felt powerless to help, with 

 all the knowledge of specialists available. Sheep 

 are said to suffer sometimes from blackleg, but it 



