SERO-FIBRINOUS PI.EURISY IN SHEEP. ' 



Causes, exposure, after clipping, washing in cold weather, alternations 

 from hot buildings to cold fields, shedding of the wool. Symptoms, hyper- 

 thermia, troubled breathing and pt^lse with catching inspiration, tender in- 

 tercostals, friction sound, and signs of effusion. Treatment, preventive, 

 shelter, febrifuges in food or water, aqua ammonia to sides. 



The causes of pleurisy in sheep may be largely included in the 

 general statement — exposure. Cold washing, with exposure after 

 clipping is especially injurious. Devieusart saw 300 cases of 

 pleurisy and thirty deaths in a flock of sheep shorn in February. 

 If kept secluded in warm buildings sheep may be shorn in mid- 

 winter, but any reckless exposure, and any sudden reduction of 

 the temperature of the building, is liable to be disastrous. Scab 

 and other skin affections which lead to a shedding of the wool in 

 inclement weather may also be the occasion of widespread attacks. 

 Otherwise the causes are essentially those of the same disease in 

 the larger animals. 



The symptoms resemble those of pneumonia, but with the pe- 

 culiar sharp, short arrest of the inspiration, and the marked ten- 

 derness of the intercostal spaces as above described. The cough 

 is short, dry, hacking and infrequent or suppressed as much as 

 possible. Auscultation and percussion signs, corresponding to 

 those found in other animals, are easily got in the newly shorn 

 sheep. In the unshorn, the wool must be parted and a stethescope 

 employed. In thoracic effusion place the sheep in different posi- 

 tions and the flatness on percussion will always show at the 

 lowest point. 



The treatment is mainly preventive, or when the disease is 

 present, of a general nature applicable to flocks. A warm barn, 

 with pure air, blanketing, wet compresses, to which may be added 

 extract of henbane, and nitrate of potash in the drinking water, 

 give examples of general medication. As a derivative, aqua am- 

 monia and oil may be applied in lines on the chest exposed by 

 parting the wool or generally on the shorn. Where the patient 

 can receive the requisite attention, further treatment should be on 

 lines laid down for cattle. 



As in cattle it is often profltable to kill for consumption when 

 first taken. 

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