464 THE DISEASES AND DISOEDERS OP THE OX. 



ance of corn or cake and hay chaff. This treatment may be 

 continued for three or four weeks, but should be now and again 

 discontinued, especially if the animals suflfer from diarrhoea. 



If a sheep is becoming thin as a result of the disease, the best 

 course is to send the animal to the butcher. If, however, fluke- 

 disease occurs in a pedigree sheep, comfortable and warm 

 quarters, plenty of dry food mashed with salt, and as little 

 water as possible should be enjoined. One drachm of sulphate 

 of iron together with half an ounce of salt well mixed with bran, 

 oats and bruised cake may be given each day for a certain time, 

 varying with the condition of the sheep. The adult flukes in 

 about fifteen months die and pass away. When cured, the 

 sheep will not do very well during summer grazing for perhaps 

 a season or two. 



It should be borne in mind that a sheep with ** razor back," 

 and "pendulous belly" cannot possibly be cured. Salt, then, 

 is not only useless, but injurious. 



With regard to preventive measures, drainage is the most 

 important. As *' a wet furrow, a springy spot, or the neigh 

 bourhood of a stagnant pool aff'ords suitable hatching ground,' 

 these should be drained dry, so far as may be found prac 

 ticable. Hedges and ditches should be kept in good order, 

 Dressings of lime and salt on the land are most serviceable 

 since they will destroy the parasite itself, in all stages of its 

 varied existence, and also the snail. Professor Thompson 

 recommends a dressing of about 6J cwt. of roughly ground rock 

 salt per acre in the month of March, April, or May. The time 

 chosen for the dressing should be, if possible, when the water 

 has subsided from flooded land. Sometimes it may be more 

 practicable to strew layers of lime or salt along the margins of 

 ditches or streams. Great care should be taken that the drop- 

 pings of rotten sheep should never gain access to moist lands. 

 The droppings should, if practicable, be buried with antiseptic 

 precautions. 



Livers in which the flukes have taken up their abode should 

 be destroyed after being removed from the body, or at any rate 

 they should be very well boiled, if it is intended to give them to 

 dogs, before doing so. 



The LimncBus j^ereger may also act as a host for the embryo 

 fluke, and it is at least very possible that other snails also may 



