316 



Diseases of Sheep. 



Reclwater lias sometimes been called " Watery Braxy," 

 but I apprehend that the braxy is more properly a retention of 

 urinc;, proceeding from inflammation of the bladder, as the dry 

 braxy is another name often applied to inflammation of the 

 bowels. I never met with a case where a ewe laboured under 

 retention of urine. When it occurs it most frequently attacks 

 rams, and many valuable sheep have been lost from its effects. I 

 have remarked it to have been generated by placing them on 

 clover that had previously been mown. As it may be easily de- 

 tected by the distension and tenderness of that part of the body 

 externally, the water can be successfully drawn off by a catheter. 

 It may not be unnecessary to caution the shepherd that diuretic 

 medicines are most injurious in a retention of urine, as they 

 increase the secretion of the fluid without in any way facilitating 

 the discharge. 



Black WATER is another complaint occasionally observed in 

 sheep, and is indicated by the discharge of a black and sometimes 

 bloody serum from the kidneys. After death, a fluid of the same 

 description is found in the stomach. Rank pasturage is believed 

 to be the cause, and, of course, change of pasturage most likely to 

 prove a cure. The bowels should be kept open, and tonics, such 

 as bark or steel, exhibited. A tea-spoonful of vitriolic acid in an 

 infusion of oak -bark is a convenient compound. 



Sheep are not very susceptible of vegetable Poison ; but the 

 foliage of the yew-tree is fatal to them, and perhaps some other 

 plants with which I am not acquainted. Generally speaking, sheep 

 will refuse food of a deleterious character, but lambs are more 

 careless, or their instinct is less powerful. Where there is reason 

 to apprehend the presence of poison, the injection of warm water 

 by the stomach-pump, until vomiting is produced, appears the only 

 efficient or practicable remedy. 



I must not dismiss this part of my subject without adding a 

 word or two on inflammation generally. In most of the disorders 

 that I have enumerated, inflammation is one of their symptoms ; 

 but an inflammatory affection often appears, though without a local 

 determination of it to any organ or part so as to enable us to fix the 

 seat of the disease. In such cases it is usually known as fever, 

 and is indicated by general heat, throbbing, and loss of appetite. 

 It is difficult to lay down rules for its treatment when thus extended 

 through the system, but the safest principle is to bleed copiously 

 from the neck, give aperient medicine to such an extent as to keep 

 the bowels well open, and drench the sheep with cooling drinks, and 



the Murrain (or, as we call it, the Speed). Mr. Cooper rears a few every 

 year, and three years ago lost three-fourths of them, but he has not lost any 

 since he used the tar. — W. Greaves. 



