The Milk Disease of the Sheep 937 



Hegel advises bleeding from the tail, cold poultices to head 

 and back, purgatives, tobacco clysters, etc., and, if trismus per- 

 sists, the application of chloroform and oil to the masseter region. 



De Bruin warns the practitioner against drenches, always 

 dangerous for swine because of strangling. He advises the use 

 of electuaries composed of 10 grammes sulphate of magnesia, 50 

 grammes powd. anise seed, and common syrup sufficient to make 

 a paste. This is placed upon the tongue with a wooden spatula, 

 and the entire quantity used during one day. He further advises 

 applying tincture of camphor over the body to arouse the skin 

 secretions. 



The Milk Disease of Sheep. Parturient Paresis 

 IN Sheep and Goats. 



De Bruin describes a malady of ewes, closely resembling the 

 parturient paresis of the cow, under the designation of milk dis- 

 ease. It occurs chiefl}' in ewes from which the sucking lambs 

 have been removed after having lambed normally some six weeks 

 previously. The disease appears usually 2-24 hours after the 

 removal of the lambs from the ewes. 



The symptoms consist of absence of appetite, rumination or 

 other digestive functions. The ewe ceases to bleat or hunt for 

 her lamb, becomes paretic, with glassy eyes, loss of corneal reflex, 

 coma, and the general symptoms of parturient paresis of cows. 



The prognosis is good, and the method of handling it is the 

 same as for parturient paresis in the cow. 



De Bruin describes, under a separate heading, a parturient 

 eclampsia of sheep, goats and swine, regarding this malady as 

 essentially different in etiology or pathology from the milk dis- 

 ease described above. 



The real ground for differentiation is not clear. In these cases 

 the animals show definite tonic and clonic spasms. The disease is 

 usually acute and stormy. It appears ordinarily soon after birth, 

 though it may occur ante-partum. There is present trismus, 

 opisthotonos, and general convulsions, with pirouetting of the 

 eyes, followed by coma. 



Chloral hydrate in enemas, and hypodermic injections of mor- 

 phine, are recommended for handling, and good results are re- 

 ported. De Bruin does not mention inflation of the mammae with 

 air or oxygen ; nor does he intimate why this should not be quite 



