MANAGEMENT AND FEEDING OF SHEEP 



promptly administered, usually it will bring relief. A 

 small dose of castor oil may bring about the same result. 

 An injection may be prepared by making a suds of warm 

 water and any kind of pure soap; castile soap answers 

 well and pure soft water makes suds, of course, more 

 readily than hard water. From half a teaspoonful to a 

 teaspoonful will usually suffice for a dose, depending on 

 the size and strength of the lamb. In obstinate instances 

 of constipation it may be necessary to give the injection 

 and also the physic before relief comes. A small syringe 

 is used in administering the injection. 



In some instances the excrement from lambs is so 

 sticky in character that it will adhere to the parts under 

 and around the tail head, in some cases to the extent of 

 closing the passage from the rectum. Such a condition 

 calls for prompt removal of the same. It is caused by 

 imperfect digestion, tracing usually to some peculiarity 

 of the milk of the dam arising from the character of the 

 rations fed. Milk from ewes that have been fed too much 

 grain may prove so unsuitable to young lambs at birth 

 as to result in their death. That from ewes fed entirely 

 on a dry diet may result in constipation. This seldom 

 happens when the ewes are fed 'even a moderate allow- 

 ance of field roots, or when in the absence of roots the 

 grain food consists of bran, oats and oilcake. 



Reviving lambs when chilled With the best of care, 

 it sometimes happens in a large flock that lambs newly 

 born will be chilled before they are seen by the shepherd. 

 To revive them under any circumstances is no easy task, 

 and, of course, the farther the chilling process has pro- 

 ceeded the more difficult is it. As long as life remains, 

 in the lamb, however, there is hope. In some instances 

 the reviving process may only cover a few hours. In 

 other instances the lamb may remain for days on the bor- 

 derland between life and death. 



One of two methods may be followed in the effort 

 to revive chilled lambs. By the first the lamb is wrapped 



