DIGESTIVE ORGANS. 895 



DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS. 



CONSTIPATION. — In this ailment the dung is hard, scanty, and 

 irregular, the rectum is red and inflamed, and when voiding dung 

 the sheep moans with pain. Injections of warm soap and water, or 

 of linseed oil, will relieve the bowels, and the latter may be given in 

 doses as well. In long-continued costiveness the sheep stretches 

 itself, spreading the legs apart, curving fhe back, and extending the 

 abdomen. In such cases, four to five drams of aloes is a good rem- 

 edy ; or a teaspoonful of sublimated sulphur (flowers of sulphur), 

 mixed with a little syrup or lard, -may be placed on the tongue, to 

 be swallowed once a day until the bowels act well. 



Diarrhea, or Scouring. — This disease is only aangerous as 

 it interferes with the process of nutrition, affecting the blood and 

 superinducing dysentery. It should be taken in time, and then 

 yields easily to proper treatment. It is best first to unload the 

 bowels by raw linseed or castor oil, adding laudanum, and follow up 

 by -J-dram doses daily of nitrate of potash and of powdered cin- 

 chona. Some recommend, besides, linseed, gum-arabic, and slip- 

 pery elm ; and in chronic cases, astringents with tonics and carmin- 

 atives may be profitably employed. The following mixture is a 

 good one to keep on hand for general use : — 



Prepared chalk ^ , i oz. 



Powdered catechu 4 dr. 



Powdered ginger 2 dr. 



Powdered opium 1 dr. 



to be mixed with $ pint of peppermint, and given in doses of one to 

 two tablespoonfuls night and morning. 



Dysentery. — The symptoms of this disease are at first those of 

 acute intestinal catarrh ; the sheep dungs frequently and with .strain- 

 ing, and the dung is fetid. Later it is quite liquid with mucus and 

 blood, and is mixed with shreds sloughed off from the coating of the 

 intestines, and increasingly offensive in smell. The sheep arches its 

 back in the passages, and the rectum sometimes protrudes. This 

 laxative may be effective in the first stages :— 



Raw linseed or sweet oil 2 oz. 



Opium (powdered) .' 10 to 15 gr. 



to be given in rice-water ? or oatmeal gruel. After the laxative has 

 operated, give daily Dover's powder with ipecac, or catechu, oak 

 bark, etc., with nux vomica (10 gr. doses), sulphate of iron, or simi- 

 lar tonics, rubbing the belly actively,, and applying mustard or giv- 

 ing a warm bath. 



Hoven Hoove, or Distention of the Rumen (or first stom- 



