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Diseases of Sheep. 



Blood. There is nothing so dangerous as that extreme state of 

 condition to which our sheep and other animals are sometimes 

 brought. When every vessel is filled to the uttermost with bloody 

 those of the brain press upon the nervous system^ and life is sus- 

 pended or lost. 



Epileptic Fits sometimes, but not frequently, attack sheep ; 

 when they do it is usually in the spring of the year. They are 

 known by the suddenness of their attack, and the giddy, convul- 

 sive staggering of the animal. It recovers, however, in the course 

 of a short time, and returns to its food. If the fits recur, treat- 

 ment similar to that which I have recommended in apoplectic 

 cases will afford relief, though the bleeding need not be so copi- 

 ous, unless the intervals of attack are very short. 



Palsy appears to proceed from exposure to severe frost, par- 

 ticularly in lambs soon after their birth, and ought rather to be 

 called chill or numbness, as it has no necessary connexion with 

 direct injury to the nerves, unless in cases similar to those I 

 am about to mention. As the complaint arises from cold, a 

 restoration of warmth, but by a gradual process, will generally 

 remove it.* In the following cases Palsy would seem to have 

 been entirely caused by the food. I had been giving two cart- 

 loads of mangel-wurzel daily to about 150 couples. Finding the 

 pasture get short, I one day ordered an extra load, and the fol- 

 lowing day I found that 13 of the ewes had nearly lost the use of 

 their limbs. On another occasion, having some hoggets that 

 would not eat the root, I enclosed them in a pen, in order to 

 starve them to it ; but, as soon as they began to feed heartily 

 they also were similarly affected. If I rightly attribute the com- 

 plaint to this cause, and, indeed, I have no doubt on the subject, 

 the treatment is to withhold the mangel-wurzel for a short time, 

 and only to return to the use of it gradually and in small quanti- 

 ties. I bled the animals that were affected, and gave to each an 



* Palsey does not, in my opinion, arise from exposure to cold ; but, in 

 lambs, is caused by the bad state of the blood of the ewes at the time of 

 lambing. I have known it occur on the dryest as well as wettest soils, in 

 warm as well as cold weather. Two years since, I had about fifty ewes put 

 to the ram early. In consequence of the severe frost, and the turnips being 

 rotten, I was afraid to let these forward ewes have any, and they were kept 

 on hay ; the hay being very good, they ate a great quantity, throve very 

 fast, and their blood was in too high a state. Nearly half of their lambs 

 were taken with swelled joints and sore mouths and ears ; and, whenever 

 a lamb bit the teat of its mother, it was sure to fester : but, after a time, 

 when they had been cooled and purged by young grass, they recovered, and 

 did very well. Of the remaining 550 ewes that had a few turnips with the 

 same hay, no lambs could be more healthy.— John Ellman. 



[This and the other notes by John Ellman, Esq., are communicated by 

 his Grace the Duke of Richmond.] 



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