DISEASES OF THE OX AND SHEEP. 677 



It should be remembered that at breeding time an animal's 

 constitution seems to be particularly susceptible to attacks of 

 septicaemia or blood-poisoning, and this is true of all varieties of 

 creatures. It is probable that the germ may be conveyed 

 through the medium of the air ; but there is no doubt that, 

 whatsoever be the cause of its first appearance at any given 

 time, it spreads with ease when once it has manifested itself in a 

 flock. 



We have said, then, that the food should not be unduly 

 nutrient in character or amount, nor, on the other hand, should 

 it be lacking in nourishing power, nor supplied in too small a 

 quantity. There is manifestly always great danger in using 

 decaying vegetable matter as food, and, though it certainly must 

 seem very hard to have to lose an apparently valuable crop of 

 turnips, as may occasionally happen, if our advice is carried 

 out, or of rejecting a large number of them if they are being 

 chopped up before use, it is at least better to submit to this 

 loss than to have a large number of fatalities among the sheep. 



Again, it is mostimportant that all animals should have changes 

 from time to time in their food supply. Men get very tired of 

 the same food if it is repeated from day to day, and this is also 

 true of animals. It is clear that any given source of nutriment 

 must necessarily contain a maximum of particular ingredients 

 and a scarcity or minimum of others ; and a change of food- 

 supply, provided always that it be of a suitable kind, very 

 frequently seems to do a great deal of good. 



If a case ol illness breaks out among lambing ewes, the 

 sufferers, or those which present the appearance of being 

 attacked, should be at once isolated, and removed from all pos- 

 sibility of contact with the rest. 



The shepherd and all who have to do with the sheep should 

 always be most scrupulously cleanly, and should, when possible, 

 wash his hands after attending to each case, in a solution of 

 carbolic acid (1 in 50) or in a freshly-made solution of perman- 

 ganate of potassium (about three grains or a little more to every 

 ounce of water). He should, moreover, avoid noxious and 

 strong preparations, which may work great damage, and would 

 really do far better to use simple lard or vaseline, or some such 

 mild and most valuable preparation as a weak ointment of boric 

 acid. Any veterinary surgeon will be ready to supply mixtures 



