The diagnosis is very easy, the parasites being visible to the naked eye.
The prognosis is not grave unless the condition affects a large number of animals in herds. In young animals the prognosis is much graver, for the little creatures rapidly become anæmic and die in a state of exhaustion.
Treatment. When the byre, fold, or piggery is infested the first point is to remove the animals and thoroughly disinfect and cleanse all parts.
Fig. 248.—Sheep foot louse (Hæmatopinus pedalis). a, Adult female; b, ventral view of terminal segment of same, showing brushes; c, terminal segments of male; d, egg. Enlarged. (After Osborn, 1896; Bul. No. 5, Div. Entomology, Dept. Agr.)
After the manure has been cleared out, the walls, mangers, racks, etc., are washed with boiling water, or, better still, potash solution, and disinfected first with vaporised sulphurous acid, then, if necessary, with a washing of caustic lime.
The patients are afterwards clipped, washed with soft soap and dressed with anti-parasitic solutions, such as 1 per cent. tobacco juice, or a mixture of equal parts of benzine and oil or benzine and petroleum, etc., which give excellent results.
A 3 per cent. creolin solution is also a very active anti-parasitic and very easy to use.
All these solutions, however, are more or less poisonous and need to be used with caution, weak solutions only being used at first, particularly in the case of animals, such as oxen, which are given to licking themselves.
