THE SHEEP AND ITS DISEASES. 297 
Treat as for Dysentery in the Ox. Give a diet of gruel and a little hay, 
and remove the exciting cause. Wash off the slimy mucus from the thighs 
and tail with soap and warm water, putting on sand or fine dirt to keep off 
flies and prevent the tail from adhering to the quarters, 
COLIC. 
Colic is not common among sheep, but lambs over-fed with milk, 
herbs, or rank pasturage may be affected with it. For symptoms and treat- 
ment, see Colic in the Ox, noting particularly the symptoms which distin- 
guish it from Inflammation of the Bowels, with which it is easily confounded, 
WORMS IN THE INTESTINES. 
Worms in the intestines of lambs are indicated by disordered digestion, 
swollen abdomen, much mucus in the nostrils, diminished chewing of the 
cud, and wasting about the loins. Its full treatment will be found under 
the same disorder in the Ox, cina and felix mas being the chief medicines. 
INFLAMMATION OF THE LIVER. 
This is very common among sheep. It is often fatal and frequently 
leads on to rot, a very serious malady (see next disease). It may be pro- 
duced by excess of nourishing food, but generally, it is believed, it results 
from miasmatic influences, as from damp pastures that have heen over- 
flowed, and other decaying vegetation. It is sometimes epidemic. Its 
symptoms are fever; dullness; quiet mood; hanging head; constipation; 
yellow skin and eyes, especially in the corners of the latter; heaving flanks; 
lameness in the right fore leg; pain from pressure on the right side; early 
death; or a chronic form ensues, ending in rot. Appropriate treatment is 
given under Inflammation of the Liver in the Ox. 
ROT.—FLUKE DISEASE. 
Rot is a common disease, and the most destructive one known among 
sheep. It results in a breaking up or rotting of the liver and internal 
tissues and organs. Careless thought should not produce a confusion of 
this with foot-rot, because of any similarity of names. Its chief causes are 
miasmatic influences, as decaying vegetable matter on miry lands, in the 
beds of streams that are nearly dry, and in water lying on any pasture after 
rains. Bad food, watery grass and thawing grounds are all favorable to its 
Digitized by Microsoft® 
