Diseases of Sheep. 



315 



urine: it is a different complaint. The urine may be tinG^ed witli 

 blood from inflammation of the kidneys or bladder ; and in such 

 cases the inflammatory symptoms must be subdued, as in all other 

 instances of acute inward inflammation, by bleeding copiously 

 and exhibiting purgatives : but redwater is an inflammation of 

 the abdomen, or of the membrane that lines the abdominal 

 cavity, and the redwater is found in that cavity. 



Some persons treat this complaint as inflammation of the kidney. 

 It is extremely probable that, in all cases of redwater, the inflam- 

 mation of the abdomen may extend to the region of the kidney, 

 and thus some of the indications that appear may lead the observer 

 to suppose that the kidney is the primary part affected : but my 

 opinion^ founded on post-mortem examination of the subject, is, that 

 the inflammatory action has its origin in the peritoneum, and^ 

 consequently, that change of diet and attention to the bowels are 

 the first points to which the care of the shepherd should be di- 

 rected. If this opinion is well founded, diuretic medicines are 

 not judicious. 



Feeding on turnips when covered with hoar-frost is supposed 

 to occasion the complaint. Another, yet more probable, cause 

 may be folding sheep on wet soil during frosty nights. The pro- 

 gress of this disease, as indeed is the case with all acute inflam- 

 mation^ is very rapid ; so rapid as to occasion death in most in- 

 stances before the existence of it is suspected. Where its pro- 

 gress allows of observation, the indications of it are costiveness 

 of the bowels and great pain and distress ; the animal appearing 

 incapable either' of rest or active motion from the violence of its 

 sufferings. Its name is derived from an accumulation of bloody 

 fluid in the abdomen. The remedy is, as I have already men- 

 tioned, copious bleeding, even until fainting takes place, and this 

 followed by opening medicine : but it is so rarely the case that a 

 cure can be expected, that, if the sure symptoms of it are per- 

 ceived, the best way is to kill the sheep before they have obtained 

 their height. Where I have succeeded in removing the inflam- 

 matory symptoms, I have immediately changed the food, and 

 put the sheep on bran and oats, very lil3eially sprinkled with salt. 

 I also provide water very copiously."^ 



* This disease is very prevalent. in this part of Derbyshire, and a friend of 

 mine, Mr. Cooper of Ashford, for many years lost one-nfili of his hoggets 

 from redwater. Three or four years ago he was advised to bring them into 

 a yard, and give each hogget a table- spoonful of common tar every fortnight, 

 and the consequence has been, that, although they are kept in every respect 

 in the same way as before, and on the same ground, he has not lost one 

 sheep since the adoption of this treatment. — It will be thought tar is my 

 common recipe for all diseases, when I state, that two table-spoonfuls given 

 every fortnight to year-old calves has been found a great specific against 



VOL. I. Z 



