390 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 



I/atnbs and Their Diseases. ' ' The diseases to which lambs are 

 subject are but few, and those are mainly the result of carelessness in 

 their management. The lamb, which appears so delicate and tender an 

 animal, is really hardy, and resists much ill treatment, else with so little 

 consideration as they usually receive, the race would soon become almost 

 extinct. Damp and cold are especially to be guarded against in the 

 spring, and filthy yards at all seasons. With clean pens and dry, clean 

 bedding, they will resist the severe dry colds of a northern January, and 

 thrive and grow while snowstorms rage, if only well sheltered. Sun- 

 shine has a remarkable effect upon lambs, and the warmth of the sun 

 will often revive and strengthen a weak lamb that appears past relief. 

 Extremes of damp and impure air in close pens, and bad drinking water, 

 will produce diarrhea and paralysis, and these are the chiefly fatal dis- 

 orders to which they are subject. Constipation is produced by want of 

 proper laxative food, and permitting them to feed on dry, withered herb^ 

 age that has lost its nutritive qualities beneath the storms of a winter. 

 If, notwithstanding all possible care, some weakly lambs are found to 

 require treatment, the simple purgative (a teaspoonful of castor or raw 

 linseed oil) will be found effective, after two or three doses, in removing 

 the troublesome matter from their intestines, and restoring the bowels to 

 healthful action. If in any case, a stimulant seems to be needed, as 

 when great weakness and prostration are present, the safest is a tea- 

 spoonful of gin, given in a little warm water with sugar. A still more 

 gentle stimulant and anodyne, but one very effective in prolonged diar- 

 rhea, is prepared by adding to a pint of peppermint water, one ounce of 

 prepared chalk, a teaspoonful each of tincture of opium and tincture of 

 rhubarb ; it is worthy of the name given to it by shepherds, viz. : ' ' lambs' 

 cordial," and at the lambing season no shepherd should be without a 

 supply of it. The dose is a teaspoonful for a lamb of a few days old, 

 up to a tablespoonful for one of a month. Exposure to cold rains 

 should be guarded against, and if by inadvertence a lamb is found chilled 

 and rigid from such exposure, it may generally be restored by means of 

 a bath of warm water and a teaspoonful of warm sweetened gin and 

 water. After the bath the lamb should be gently dried, wrapped in a 

 warm flannel, and placed near a fire or in a wooden box in a gently 

 heated oven of a common stove. Where the flock is large, and the 

 kitchen is not within reach, the shepherd should have the conveniences 

 of a shed and an old cooking-stove in which he can keep a fire sufficient 

 to heat the water bath, and provide a warm bed in the oven for any 



