388 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 



thriving and often causes death. The larva of this tape- worm is a small 

 watery bladder, or sac, which contains the undeveloped worm. There 

 are two general varieties of these worms, one the intestinal tape-worm, 

 which is very rare, and the bladder worms, of which there are three 

 kinds. Of these bladder worms one variety, the diving bladder-worm, 

 inhabits the abdomen; another variety, the many-headed bladder-worm 

 finds a home in the liver; while the third inhabits the brain, and are 

 called the brain bladder- worm. 



Diving Bladder-Worm. These worms are found free in the abdo- 

 men; enclosed in the adipose tissue (fat); and attached to the liver and 

 intestines. They vary in size from a hickory-nut to a hen's egg. They 

 sometimes are found as large as a goose's egg. These bladders when fed 

 to a dog, produce the mature taenia marginata (tape worm) about three 

 feet in length in about three months. Then the sheep or lambs eating 

 the eggs of this worm produce the hydatids or bladder-worms. If they 

 are taken into the body in large quantities the animal will soon die. 



Many Headed Bladder Worms. This parasite finds a home in 

 the lungs and liver of the sheep and other ruminants and also is found 

 in man. It is a most dangerous parasite, because if it is taken into 

 the human stomach it may produce ' 'bladders' ' in the brain. They g^ow 

 by a budding process and rapidly increase. It is most commonly found 

 in the brain. When the head of a sheep containing the bladder-worms 

 is eaten by a dog the larvae is changed into tape worms. This worm or 

 its eggs pass out of the body of the dog upon the grass of the pasture 

 and the eggs are swallowed by the sheep. These eggs are hatched in 

 the stomach and go to all parts of the body, perishing everywhere but 

 in the brain, which is its usual habitation. They chiefly affect lambs, old 

 sheep seeming to be rarely inconvenienced by this parasite. One in- 

 fested dog will produce thousands of eggs. To prevent the disease, do 

 not let the heads of sheep be devoured by dogs or hogs. Burn the 

 heads of the sheep that have died from the malady. 



The presence of this parasite produces what is commonl}' known as 

 giddiness or turnside in which the sheep turns its head to the right or 

 left and walks around in a circle in the direction in which the head is 

 turned until it falls giddy and exhausted. 



The location of the worm may be determined by a "soft spot" on the 

 skull. The worm causes absorption of the substance and the soft tissues 

 may be easily felt by pressure of the finger. The treatment consists in 

 inserting a curved awl through the skull and piercing the bladder. The 



