328 MODERN SHEEP: BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



BLOAT. 



That there are a great many sheep sacrificed to bloat through 

 the ignorance or carelessness of their owners there is no doubt. To 

 turn a flock of sheep into a clover field, rape field or alfalfa field 

 when very hungry is to court loss from this trouble. When a 

 sheep becomes a victim to bloat its stomach becomes very much 

 distended in fact, so much so that its body seems to belong to 

 a larger set of legs than its own. A bloated sheep is best relieved 

 by tapping. Tapping is performed by making an incision direct- 

 ly into the stomach at that point on the left side of the afflicted 

 animal where it is most distended. A trocar is the proper instru- 

 ment for tapping, but in the absence of this instrument the opera- 

 tion may be performed with a common pocketknif e. When .tapping 

 an animal care must be used that the tapping instrument be in- 

 serted in such a way as to avoid striking the kidneys, especially 

 where the sheep is very fat. After tapping the patient should be 

 given a heavy dose of linseed oil. One of the best medicinal agents 

 in an acute attack of bloat is three drams of hyposulphite of soda 

 and one dram of ginger mixed in water. This should be admin- 

 istered as soon as the first symptoms of the trouble are observed. 



NODULAR DISEASE OF THE INTESTINES. 



Although this disease has received but little notice until with- 

 in the past few years, there is no doubt but that it has existed as 

 long as most diseases from which the flock suffers. The author in 

 his boyhood days well remembers having noticed the lumps or no- 

 dules of the disease on the entrails of sheep which he was dressing 

 for market. It is considered by some to be one of the most dead- 

 ly diseases that affect sheep, which is questionable in the writer's 

 mind since those animals upon whpse intestines the nodules were 

 noticed could not possibly attain such bloom and such heavy 

 weights at such an early age if they had suffered intense pain or 

 experienced any great loss of vitality at any time during their ex- 

 istence. Notice to this disease was first attracted in a somewhat 

 novel way. As may be generally known, the smaller intestines of 

 the sheep was, before the introduction of the artificial article, used 

 as sausage casings. Through a deficiency in their elasticity and 

 strength an investigation started which showed that the defect 

 was due to the nodules from which the nodular disease takes its 

 name. The disease is not confined to any one section of the uni- 

 verse, for the writer has noticed evidence of the work of the nodular 

 parasite in America, Great Britain and other countries. Whether 

 there is a remedy or not for the disease is problematical. 



