570 MANUAL OF MODERN FARRIERY 



examine the ewe, when he will find that sore nipples, 

 or some other disease, is frequently the cause of her 

 want of maternal care. If he discovers that sore 

 nipples is the reason she deserts her young, they should 

 be anointed with some emollient ointment to heal them : 

 such as common cerate, or palm-oil. If the want of a 

 sufficiency of milk is the cause, then the ewe should be 

 supplied plentifully with green, rich food, and the lamb 

 fed in the meantime with cow's milk, or from the milk 

 of a ewe which has lost her lamb. 



To make a ewe which has lost her lamb take to 

 another, the following device has been adopted. The 

 dead one is skinned, and the skin fixed on the other 

 lamb, and both ewe and lamb confined together in a 

 particular place, when the ewe will take to it, and then 

 the false skin may be removed. In those cases where 

 the ewe refuses to allow the lamb to suck, tie her by 

 the horns or head and place her in a small corner pen, 

 where she can neither kick the lamb, nor turn round 

 upon it, when the little creature desires to suck. Give 

 the ewe hand-feeding, and allow her to remain tied up 

 for a day or two. As a rule she now takes kindly to 

 the lamb. If not, introduce within the vagina a small 

 quantity of common salt, and this by acting on the 

 mucous membrane of the vagina and womb excites the 

 maternal feeling and desire to give milk. 



WEANING LAMBS. 



It is rather a difficult task to wean lambs. They 

 should be allowed to suck for three months and a half ; 

 after which time they should be removed to a distance 

 from their dams, and kept apart for two or three weeks, 

 when they may again be returned to the pasturage 

 along with the ewes, and will give no further trouble. 



