262 
071 the Domestic Veterinary Treatment of 
to breed from animals after the third calf will not commend 
itself to owners of pedigree stock ; and generally the preventive 
measures resolve themselves into those sanitary regulations which 
every considerate breeder naturally adopts — such as attention to 
the general health, regulation of the supply of food to the 
amount of exercise, so as to avoid plethora on the one hand, and 
poverty on the other ; and the occasional administration of a 
moderate dose of laxative medicine. Treatment of " dropping 
after calving " is not in most cases successful, and considering 
that experienced veterinarians commonly fail to effect a cure, the 
farmer will hardly expect to cope with the disease by the aid of 
domestic remedies. 
The " lambing time " is not less important to the flock-master 
than the period of calving is to the owner of a valuable herd, 
and perhaps the misfortunes which are common to the first- 
named are more certain, as they are numerically higher than 
those which are incidental to the second. The fact is not 
remarkable, considering how little attention is often paid to the 
comfort of the breeding ewes at the time. Very frequently 
the animals are only partially sheltered, folded on damp ground, 
and kept almost exclusively on watery food ; under such un- 
favourable conditions losses both of ewes and lambs happen 
almost as a matter of necessity. 
A further cause of mischief is to be found in the well-intended 
efforts of the shepherd to assist delivery when no assistance is 
required : application of force in the removal of the foetus is, how- 
ever, very objectionable ; but in addition to the risk of injury 
which is incurred, there is the even more serious danger of 
septic infection, as it is called, from the dirty condition of the 
hands of the attendants, which are often covered Avith blood in 
a state of decomposition, and with other septic matters, no 
respect being paid to the well-known fact that the mucous 
membrane of the uterine passage is in an excited condition at 
this time, and prone to suffer from contact with infective matter 
of any kind. Absorption of septic germs takes place very 
rapidly, and blood-poisoning is the natural consequence. 
Inflammation of the Womb, or Parturient Fever, is a fatal disease 
to which ewes are liable, and it is quite certain that it may be 
extensively communicated, and is not unlikely to be originated 
by the agency of the shepherd's hands being charged with 
septic material. 
The term " straining " is used to indicate these affections, and 
it is sufficiently expressive ; the symptom in itself is easily recog- 
nized by the shepherd who, knowing the fatality which attends 
the malady, is always on the look-out for the first sign of its 
appearance. 
