LIVER FLUKES.
—These are parasites usually found in the liver or its ducts. At times they are present in great numbers, giving rise to a serious disease called liver rot. When the fertilized eggs are discharged in the excrement of diseased animals and fall in fresh water they hatch out and are taken into the body by sheep and cattle, either in the food or drink. In a short time thereafter they have entrenched themselves in the liver of cattle or sheep.
LIVER FLUKE
A few liver flukes in an animal causes little trouble, as the injury is largely mechanical anyway. No peculiar symptoms are conspicuous when only a few flukes are present. The greatest damage is done when hundreds of flukes develop in a single individual. In these cases the flow of the bike is checked. As result the health becomes impaired and the usual penalties of malnutrition follow. Swelling of the jaws and diarrhœa are often noticed in connection with the disease.
When the host is badly infected with the flukes and in a badly run-down condition the trouble is always serious, and medicinal treatment is of little real value. Tonics and good food may be given to help along—but death usually follows. Salt is helpful as the flukes are sensitive to it. If an animal that has succumbed to the disease be examined, the liver will be observed to be fairly rotten as a result of the inroads of the parasites.
Treatment is in line of prevention only. Clean, pure fresh water, free of the eggs or the parasites, is necessary if the trouble is to be eradicated. The old ponds, ordinarily filled with stagnant water, should be drained. They harbor many bad parasites, and their harm is far beyond their value. When water for sheep and cattle is taken from pure streams or wells the trouble from liver flukes and other parasites is reduced to a minimum.