Management of Sheep. 



21 



they have been incautiously placed upon luxuriant keeping. The 

 young succulent grasses are most likely to produce it. or a sudden 

 transition from heat to cold, producing weak bowels, will cause it. 

 When the disease is observed to be coming on, the animals should 

 be instantly changed to older or dry keeping. If the disease has 

 advanced unnoticed, they should be taken up, kept warm, sup- 

 plied with dry food, and given 1 oz. of castor-oil, in half a pint of 

 gruel ; if the animal has much pain or straining, add 20 drops 

 of laudanum, with rather more gruel ; if the discharge still con- 

 tinues, and the bowels have been cleared by this dose, it will be 

 proper to check it by astringents. The following is found to be 

 an excellent medicine, and rarely fails : — 



4 oz. logwood, 1 drachm of the extract of catechu, and 2 drachms of 

 cinnamon, mixed with 3 pints of water, boiled for a quarter of an hour ; 

 strain it off, then add 60 drops of laudanum. Give half a pint night 

 and morning as long as the flux continues. 



Dysentery. — Although some breeders class this disease with 

 the diarrhoea, I consider it to be very different/* being found most 

 amongst the older sheep during the summer months, particularly 

 in hot, sultry weather, or when they have been run too thick upon 

 short pastures, and are consequently more easily acted upon. It 

 is distinguished by the frequent discharges of slimy or green 

 matter ; further on in the disease they are mixed with blood ; the 

 belly is drawn up, the appetite lost, the animal wastes rapidly, 

 and the disease proves fatal very quickly, unless it be arrested by 

 powerful medicine and warm treatment. The approach of death 

 is known by the black scour coming on, which is an aggravation 

 of the disease, being mixed with shreds of dark gangrene matter 

 from the decomposition of the intestines. If the disease has only 

 just commenced, bleeding is highly necessary; but if advanced^ 

 great caution should be observed, and the pulse attended to, to 

 avoid lowering the system too much. To effect a cure a reaction, 

 or perfect change in the system, is necessary, and may be best 

 produced by exciting the action of the skin. To effect this the 

 animal should be immersed in a tub of hot water for 15 minutes, 

 then given I ounce of castor-oil, with 30 drops of laudanum, in a 

 little gruel, taking care that the animal be kept warm by wrap- 

 ping, and placed in a warm shed. As the animal recovers, give 

 gruel freely, with a more moderate dose of the above ; when the 

 appetite returns, give mixed food, such as hay and vegetables. 



* Diarrhoea and dysentery are undoubtedly different complaints, and 

 one great distinction between them is, that an attack of dysentery is dan- 

 gerous from the commencement; but diarrhoea is only serious when accom- 

 panied by dysentery, which it usually is after continuing for any length of 

 time : and I believe diarrhoea seldom proves fatal to sheep until dyserjtery 

 comes on.— H. S. Thompson. 



