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CASES OF DEPRAVED APPETITE, FOOT-ROT, AND 
THE ATTACK OF THE FLY IN SHEEP. 
By Mr. Joseph Gutteridge, Ross. 
My dear Sir, — I HASTEN to give you an account of that singular 
and destructive depravation of appetite in a flock of sheep in my 
neighbourhood, respecting which you solicited inquiry. They 
were turned into a field of turnips ; but they had not been there 
more than a few days before the shepherd fancied that some of 
them were not doing well : they were dull, and lagging behind the 
others, and altogether indisposed to move. The appetite was gone, 
and there was considerable heaving of the flanks. He drew 
twenty-five of the worst of them, and put them by themselves. 
On the following day three of them were dead. He gave an active 
purge to the rest, but, in the course of four days, six more of them 
had died. 
I was called in, and, of course, availed myself of the opportunity 
of examining some of the dead sheep. I found the rumen and 
abomasum, and nearly the whole of the intestinal canal, loaded 
with sand and portions of indigested food of various kinds : there 
was also great inflammation in various parts of the intestinal 
canal. 
I ordered the remainder of the flock to be immediately brought 
into the fold-yard. Several of them were purging very much. I, 
however, gave to every one of them a brisk dose of Epsom salts 
with ginger, and I kept them in the yard all night. 
The next morning I found that the salts had taken very good 
effect. On the third day a second dose was given to each of them, 
and they were turned into another field. Only one died afterwards. 
In him I found very little sand, but there was great inflammation 
of the intestinal canal, and which was the cause of death. 
Since my first letter was written, I have had sixty yearlings 
labouring under a similar disease. I gave to each an active purge 
of salts with gentian and chamomile, and, afterwards, a dose of 
stomachic medicine daily for ten days. Their food, while under 
treatment, consisted only of dry meat, as cut hay and a few oats. 
I saw the shepherd a few days ago, and he informed me that they 
were all going on well. I have, within the last fortnight, sent out 
medicine for more than two hundred sheep having the scour, all of 
which have done well. It is singular that these cases should hap- 
pen in the summer season, for, generally speaking, it is in the spring 
of the year that the scour most prevails. 
I have had, this summer, two flocks in which the foot-rot has 
