A sheep which the owner has reared or purchased at the ordinary price, is the only domestic animal which can die without material loss to its owner. The wool and pelt will, in most instances, repay its cost, while the carcasses of other animals will be worthless except for manure. The loss of sheep from occasional disease, will leave the farmer's pocket in a very different condition from the loss of an equal value in horses or cattle. Yet humanity, equally with interest, dictates the use of such simple remedies for the removal of suffering and disease, as may be within reach.
Diarrhœa or Scours,
When light and not long continued, calls for no remedy. It is a healthful provision of nature for the more rapid expulsion of some offending matter in the system, which, if retained, might lead to disease. It is generally owing to improper food, as bad hay or noxious weeds; to a sudden change, as from dry food to fresh grass; or to an excess, as from overloading the stomach; and sometimes, from cold and wet.
The remedies are obvious.
Change to suitable food in the first two cases; enforce abstinence after repletion; and provide warm, dry shelter, with light diet, if owing to the latter causes.
When severe or long continued, a dose of castor oil may be given, and after its operation, give four grains of opium and one ounce chalk, and put them on dry food. Wheat-bran or shorts, and oat-meal or flaxseed ground, are both good for ailing lambs and sheep; as are also ripe oats or wheat, fed in the sheaf, with well cured, sweet hay, and plenty of salt. Fresh boughs of the juniper, or pine and hemlock, help to check the disorder.
Looseness in the larger lambs is prevented by having chalk within their reach; or if they refuse it, administer it in their food. When it happens soon after birth, place it with the
ewe in a warm place, and feed the latter with plenty of oats, or other sound grain. If the milk be deficient, give the lamb cow's milk scalded, or let it suck the cow. The tail is sometimes glued on to the buttocks, while the scours continue. Separate it immediately by the use of warm water, and rub the parts with dry loam or clay.
Dysentery.
This is a different and frequently a fatal disease, but resembles the former in its general symptoms. It is owing to prolonged diarrhœa, unwholesome or meager food, and other causes. Bleeding and physic should be resorted to, after which give warm, nourishing gruel.