DIARRHCEA, OR PURGING. 233 



SECTION XV. 



UIARRH(EA, OR PURGING. 



The full-^own sheep is almost as subject to purging as is the 

 lamb, but it is not so difficult to be cured, nor is it so fatal. A sheep 

 can scarcely be turned into fresh pasture in the spring without begin- 

 ning to scour, and especially when warm weather is succeeding to 

 cold, and the grass shoots rapidly; but this in most cases is bene- 

 ficial rather than injurious. It rouses the digestive organs to full and 

 healthy action, and the sheep that scours a little when first turned 

 into the meadow or on the marsh, is sure to thrive more quickly after- 

 wards. The purging, however, must not be too violent, nor continue 

 too long. 



The looseness caused by feeding on young succulent grass, seldom 

 lasts more than a few days ; but if it should continue longer, the 

 sheep must be removed to inferior pasture, and a little hay allowed 

 them if they can be induced to eat it : some dry sound old seeds should 

 also be put before them, and the following powder administered : — 



RECIPE (No. 21). 



Jjxfrinirent Powder for Sheep.— Take prepared chalk, a quarter of an ounce; ginger, 

 half a drachm ; catechu, powdered, half a drachm ; powdered opium, two grains. Give 

 this in a little gruel once or twice daily until the purging abates. 



A favourite remedy with some farmers, and succeeding in slight 

 cases, but inefficacious in severe ones, is suet boiled in milk. Others 

 give a very curious medicine : it consists of the lime dug out of an 

 old wall, and mixed with tar. What good purpose the tar can an- 

 swer, I cannot conceive, and the lime would be superseded by the 

 prepared chalk recommended in the last recipe. 



When the disease abates, the sheep must not be turned out again 

 on their former pasture, but on the best old grass land which the farm 

 will yield ; and even then, a little good hay and corn should be daily 

 allowed them. 



Tlie farmer should be careful that he does not confound the conse- 

 quence of the diarrhoea with costiveness. When there is much mu- 

 cous discharge, it is very sticky, and adheres to the wool under the 

 tail, and glues it to the rump, thus forming a mechanical obstruction 

 to the passage of the dung. The sheep straining very hard, careless 

 observers have supposed that he was costive, and have given him a 

 strong dose of physic, and thus added fuel to the fire. 



There is but one form of the disease under which all hope is pre- 

 cluded, and that is when it is connected with chronic cough or con- 

 firmed hoose. That animal may be patched up for a little while, but 

 he will most assuredly perish. 



It is necessary to make a distinction between diarrhoea and di/seri' 

 teri/, the latter being attended with considerable fevei «nd the evacua- 

 20* 



