BLOWN, OR BLAST. 209 



SECTION VIII. 



BLOWN, OR BLAST. 



This is of as frequent occurrence among sheep as oxen, and it is as 

 fatal. The cause is the same, the removal of the animals from poor 

 keep to rich and succulent food. When sheep are first turned on 

 clover, or even on any pasture more nutritious than that to which they 

 have been accustomed, if they are not watched and kept moving 

 during the day, and folded elsewhere at night, they are too apt to 

 overload the paunch, so that it can no longer contract upon and expel 

 its contents : fermentation then ensues, and the extrication of gas : 

 the paunch is distended to the utmost, and the animal is often suffo- 

 cated. The remedy of the farmer is the same here as with the ox — 

 paunching, or thrusting a sharp pen-knife into the paunch, between 

 the hip-bone and the last rib on the left side, when the gas ^yith which 

 the stomach is distended will escape. The objection to this practice 

 is likewise the same as in oxen — that when a portion of the gas has 

 escaped, the stomach will no longer be firmly pressed against the 

 side, and the wounds in the side and the paunch will no longer ex- 

 actly correspond ; a portion of the gas, and of the contents of the 

 stomach too, w'ill then pass into the cavity of the abdomen, and 

 (although the animal may seem for a while to recover) will be an 

 unsuspected source of inflammation, and even of death. 



The common elastic tube, so strongly recommended by Dr. Duncan, 

 is preferable to the knife : the gas will escape as completely, and 

 without any possibility of danger. It is passed down the gullet into 

 the paunch. The stomach-pump, however, is here likewise a far 

 preferable instrument, for, as was remarked when treating of the 

 hoove in oxen, the acid fluid whicli is probably in the stomach may 

 be pumped out, or sufficient warm water pumped in to excite vomit- 

 ing, and thus free the stomach of its oppressive load. If neither the 

 pump nor the tube is at hand, a stick with a knob at the end of it 

 should be passed by the shepherd into the paunch, which, separating 

 the muscular pillars that constitute the roof of this stomach, is far 

 preferable to the knife. 



When a sheep is first seized with the blown or blast, he will often 

 be relieved by being driven gently about for an hour or two, and put 

 into a bare pasture. In the act of moving, these pillars will be occa- 

 sionally separated a little from each other, and the gas will escape; 

 but the animal must not be gallopped or driven by dogs, lest the sto- 

 mach should be ruptured. 



The animal having been relieved, or the contents of the stomach 

 evacuated, a purgative should always be administered, and thatcon.- 

 bined with some aromatic. The following will be useful : — 

 18* 



