302 



Diseases of Sheep. 



thinks tlie shearing too hazardous or too unseasonable an ex- 

 periment. 



I will now mention two cases of severe loss occasioned by the 

 bite of mad dogs, one of which I copy from the ' Bristol Mirror 

 the other occurred some years since to a person with whom I was 

 acquainted. I notice them to impress more forcibly on my readers 

 the necessity of my previous cautions : — 



" On the 22nd March, 1838, early in the morning, Mr. John 

 Reeve, of Rudway Farm, in the parish of Stapleton, had twenty- 

 three of his sheep and lambs worried and bitten in a frightful 

 manner by a dog belonging to a poor neighbour, who concealed 

 her apprehensions of the rabid state of the animal till the event 

 proved the certainty. Being caught in the fact of bitmg the sheep, 

 the dog was shot at, but, receiving only a portion of the charge, 

 was still able to run home, v/here it was pursued and eventually 

 destroyed. So severely were six of the lambs bitten, that they 

 either died or were obliged to be killed the same day. No ap- 

 prehensions being entertained by the farmer that the dog was mad, 

 the wounds of the sheep were merely dressed. On Saturday (21st 

 April), however, symptoms of hydrophobia manifested themselves 

 in the poor creatures, and one of the lambs died ; on Sunday a 

 second died, and on Monday a third lamb died, all mad. On 

 Tuesday three ewes were obliged to be destroyed ; on Wednesday 

 two ewes and four lambs were killed ; on Thursday two ewes and 

 two lambs died, all mad ; and it is feared several others must be 

 destroyed. We understand also that, about two months ago, Mr. 

 Jones, of Stapleton, met with a similar misfortune, and had up- 

 v/ards of a score of sheep and lambs bit in the same manner, and 

 that several of them also died mad." 



The other instance happened to a respectable farmer of the 

 name of Hodge, residing within three miles of Exeter, who lost 

 a considerable number of valuable ewes from the bite of a rabid 

 dog. It was several weeks from the first attack until the disorder 

 stopped. He killed the animal in the act of worrying the sheep, 

 but took no precaution to prevent the malady. 



The Eye of the sheep is liable to many diseases, but for the 

 most part they are symptomatic of other complaints affecting the 

 constitution, and will disappear when the constitutional disorder 

 is removed. Amaurosis, or paralysis of the optic nerve, is often 

 the result of apoplexy, or of water in the head. The seal), 

 when it reaches the head, v/iil leave considerable soreness in the 

 eyelids, and some other diseases will leave their traces on this 

 organ : in all such cases relief may be given by a zinc lotion 

 (Appendix, No. 8), but a cure can only be expected in a removal 

 of the original disease. The complaint called Blindness, to Avhich 

 sheep are much subject in some of the western counties, is an 



