CHAPTER XXVIH. 



DISEASES OF SHEEP. 



Many of the diseases of sheep are common to other ruminants 

 but in the treatment of their ailments sheep must needs, as a 

 rule, be dealt with in a wholesale manner ; the individual being 

 of less value than the ox and not under the same discipline or 

 management as the cow accustomed to handling. Headers, 

 with experience of flocks, will readily call to mind the trough for 

 foot-dressing and the drive through a narrow gateway in which 

 remedies are placed with which the feet may receive a rough 

 dressing as the animals tread it. The conditions under which a 

 flock is kept apply to all the animals composing it, and they have 

 been exposed to the like chances of disease, so that medicaments are 

 often mixed with food in the trough from which all partake in 

 something like the same proportions ; a rough method truly, 

 but large flocks cannot well be dealt with otherwise. The small 

 holder with a few animals can give the individual attention which 

 is to be preferred, and the ewe flock is placed under special 

 conditions for lambing and men's services set apart. In the 

 following pages, we shall consider the common diseases with 

 the general methods employed upon large numbers, as well as the 

 treatment suited to individuals under complete control. 



Signs of Disease. The gregarious habit impels a sheep only 

 slightly ailing to keep up with the movements of the flock, but 

 the watchful shepherd will notice, if any of them keep their heads 

 up while the rest are grazing, that something may be assumed to 

 be amiss when any departure from habit is observed. A sheep 

 more seriously ill will be left behind, or intentionally leave his 

 fellows. He should be caught and examined. The ailing one 

 may show other signs such as arching of the back, extended neck 

 and lowered head and drooping ears, or be found prone and making 

 no effort to rise. In certain brain disturbances they appear 

 to be dazed and lost to the world. Indifference to surroundings, 

 however shown, is a sign of illness. Fits in which the sheep spins 

 round and falls over, or holds the head to one side for some time 

 and presently sinks to the ground suggest to the flockmaster 

 the presence of brain pressure from hydatids, as does any want of 

 co-ordination of the muscles or stumbling which will not be mis- 

 taken for lameness any more than the irregular movements of an 

 intoxicated person. While speaking of individual sheep unable 

 to rise, it would seem superfluous to say that fat animals of the 

 large breeds, with heavy fleeces, sometimes get on their backs 

 and perish in useless struggles to right themselves, for this is 



