Part 19

Assafoetida, one third of a tea-spoonful. Gruel made from slippery elm, 1 pint.

Mix, while hot. Repeat the dose every other day. Make some change in the food. Thus, if the animal has been fed on green fodder for any length of time, let it have a few meals of shorts, meal, linseed, &c. The water must be of the best quality.

Suppose the animal to be in poor condition; then combine tonics and alteratives in the following form:--

Assafoetida, 1 tea-spoonful. Powdered golden seal, 1 ounce. " slippery elm, 2 ounces. Oatmeal, 1 pound.

Mix thoroughly, and divide into eight equal parts. A powder to be given every morning.

RED WATER.

This is nothing more nor less than a symptom of deranged function. The cure consists in restoring healthy action to all parts of the animal organization. For example, high-colored urine shows that there is too much action on the internal surfaces, and too little on the external. This at once points to the propriety of keeping the sheep in a warm situation, in order to invite action to the skin.

_Compound for Red Water._

Powdered slippery elm, } " pleurisy root, } of each, 1 ounce. " poplar bark, } Indian meal, 1 pound.

Mix. To be divided into ten parts, one of which may be given every morning.

CACHEXY,[16] OR GENERAL DEBILITY.

_Indications of Cure._--First. To build up and promote the living integrity by a generous diet, one or more of the following articles may be scalded and given three times a day: carrots, parsnips, linseed, corn meal, &c.

Secondly. To remove morbific materials from the system, and restore the lost functions, one of the following powders may be given, night and morning, in the fodder:--

Powdered balmony, (snakehead,) 1 ounce. " marshmallows, 1 ounce. " common salt, 1 table-spoonful. Linseed meal, 1 pound.

Mix. Divide into ten powders.

FOOTNOTE:

[16] It implies a vitiated state of the solids and fluids.

LOSS OF APPETITE.

This is generally owing to a morbid state of the digestive organs. All that is necessary in such case is, to restore the lost tone by the exhibition of bitter tonics. A bountiful supply of camomile tea will generally prove sufficient. If, however, the bowels are inactive, add to the above a small portion of extract of butternut. The food should be slightly salted.

FOUNDERING, (RHEUMATISM)

In this malady, the animal becomes slow in its movements; its walk is characterized by rigidity of the muscular system, and, when lying down, requires great efforts in order to rise.

_Causes._--Exposure to sudden changes in temperature, feeding on wet lands, &c.

_Indications of Cure._--To equalize the circulation, invite and maintain action to the external surface, and remove the cause. To fulfil the latter indication, remove the animal to a dry, warm situation.

The following antispasmodic and diaphoretic will complete the cure: Powdered lady's slipper, (_cypripedium_,) 1 tea-spoonful. To be given every morning in a pint of warm pennyroyal tea.

If the malady does not yield in a few days, take

Powdered sassafras bark, 1 tea-spoonful. Boiling water, 1 pint. Honey, 1 tea-spoonful.

Mix, and repeat the dose every other morning.

TICKS.

Ticks, or, in short, any kind of insects, may be destroyed by dropping on them a few drops of an infusion or tincture of lobelia seeds.

SCAB, OR ITCH.

Scab, itch, erysipelas, &c., all come under the head of cutaneous diseases, and require nearly the same general treatment. The following compound may be depended on as a safe and efficient remedy in either of the above diseases:--

Sulphur, 2 ounces. Powdered sassafras, 1 ounce.

Honey, sufficient to amalgamate the above. Dose, a table-spoonful every morning. To prevent the sheep from rubbing themselves, apply

Pyroligneous acid, 1 gill. Water, 1 quart.

Mix, and wet the parts with a sponge.

_Remarks._--In reference to the scab, Dr. Gunther says, "Of all the preservatives which have been proposed, inoculation is the best. It has two advantages: first, the disease so occasioned is much more mitigated, and very rarely proves fatal; in the next place, an entire flock may get well from it in the space of fifteen days, whilst the natural form of the disorder requires care and attention for at least six months. It has been ascertained that the latter kills[17] more than one half of those attacked; whilst among the sheep that have been inoculated, the greatest proportion that die of it is one per cent."

Whenever the scab makes its appearance, the whole flock should be examined, and every one having the least abrasion eruption of the skin should be put under medical treatment.

In most cases, itch is the result of infection. A single sheep infected with it is sufficient to infect a whole flock. If a few applications of the pyroligneous wash, aided by the medicine, are not sufficient to remove the malady, then recourse must be had to the following:--

Fir balsam, half a pint. Sulphur, 1 ounce.

Mix. Anoint the sores daily.

The only additional treatment necessary in erysipelas is, to give a bountiful supply of tea made of lemon balm, sweetened with honey.

FOOTNOTE:

[17] More likely the remedies. They are tobacco and corrosive sublimate--destructive poisons.

DIARRHOEA.

This is not always to be considered as a disease, but in many cases it proves salutary operation of nature; therefore it should not be too suddenly checked.

We commence the treatment by feeding on boiled meal. We then give mucilaginous drink made from marshmallows, slippery elm, or poplar bark. If, at the end of two days, symptoms of amendment have not made their appearance, the following draught must be given:--

Make a strong infusion of raspberry leaves, to a pint of which add a tea-spoonful of tincture of capsicum, (hot drops,) and one of charcoal. To be repeated every morning, until healthy action is established.

DYSENTERY.

This malady may be treated in the same manner as diarrhoea. Should blood and slime be voided in large quantities, the excrement emit a fetid odor, and the animal waste rapidly, then, in addition to the mucilaginous drink, administer the following:--

Powdered charcoal, 1 tea-spoonful. " golden seal, half a tea-spoonful.

To be given, in hardhack tea, as occasion may require.

A small quantity of charcoal, given three times a day, with boiled food, will frequently cure the disease, alone.

Dysentery is sometimes mistaken for diarrhoea; but they may be distinguished by the following characteristics:--

1st. Diarrhoea most frequently attacks weak animals; whereas dysentery ofttimes attacks animals in good condition.

2d. Dysentery generally attacks sheep in the hot months; on the other hand, diarrhoea terminates at the commencement of the hot season.

3d. In diarrhoea, there are scarcely any feverish symptoms, and no straining before evacuation, as in dysentery.

4th. In diarrhoea, the excrement is loose, but in other respects natural, without any blood or slime; whereas in dysentery the fæces consist of hard lumps, blood, and slime.

5th. There is not that degree of fetor in the fæces, in diarrhoea, which takes place in dysentery.

6th. In dysentery, the appetite is totally gone; in diarrhoea, it is generally better than usual.

7th. Diarrhoea is not contagious; dysentery is supposed to be highly so.

8th. In dysentery, the animal wastes rapidly; but by diarrhoea, only a temporary stop is put to thriving, after which it makes rapid advances to strength, vigor, and proportion.

CONSTIPATION, OR STRETCHES.

By these terms are implied a preternatural or morbid detention and hardening of the excrement; a disease to which all animals are subject, unless proper attention be paid to their management. It mostly arises from want of exercise, feeding on frosted oats, indigestible matter of every kind, impure water, &c. Costiveness is often the case of flatulent and spasmodic colic, and often of inflammation of the bowels.

Mr. Morrill says, "I have always found that the quantity of medicine necessary to act as an _opiate_ on this dry mass [alluding to that found in the manyplus and intestines] will kill the animal. If I am mistaken, I will take it kindly to be set right." You are quite right.

Let us see what Professor J. A. Gallup says, in his Institutes of Medicine, vol. ii. p. 187. "The practice of giving opiates to mitigate pain, &c., is greatly to be deprecated; it is not only unjustifiable, but should be esteemed unpardonable. It is probable that, for forty years past, opium and its preparations have done _seven times the injury_ that they have rendered benefit"--killed seven where they have saved one! Page 298, he calls opium the "most destructive of all narcotics," and wishes he could "speak through a lengthened trumpet, that he might tingle the ears" of those who use and prescribe it. All the opiates used by the allopathists contain more or less of this poisonous drug. Opiates given with a view of softening mass alluded to will certainly disappoint those who administer them; for, under the use of such "palliatives," the digestive powers fail, and a general state of feebleness and inactivity ensues, which exhausts the vital energies.

It will be found in stretches, that other organs, as well as the "manyplus," are not performing their part in the business of physiological or healthy action, and they must be excited to perform their work; for example, if the food remains in either of the stomachs in the form of a hard mass, then the surface of the body is evaporating too much moisture from the general system; the skin should be better toned. Pure air is one of the best and most valuable of nature's tonics. Let the flock have pure air to breathe, and sufficient room to use their limbs, with proper diet, and there will be little occasion for medicine.

_Treatment._--The disease is to be obviated by proper attention to diet, exercise, and ventilation; and when these fail, to have recourse to bitter laxatives, injections, and aperients. The use of salts and castor oil creates a necessity for their repetition, for they overwork the mucous surfaces, and their delicate vessels lose their natural sensibility, and become torpid. Scalded shorts are exceedingly valuable in this complaint, as also are boiled carrots, parsnips, &e.

The derangement must be treated according to its indications, thus:--

Suppose the digestive organs to be deranged, and rumination to have ceased; then take a tea-spoonful of extract of butternut, and dissolve it in a pint of thoroughwort tea, and give it at a dose. Use an injection of soap-suds, if necessary.

Suppose the excrement to be hard, coated with slime, and there be danger of inflammation in the mucous surfaces; then give a wine-glass of linseed oil,[18] to which add a raw egg.

It is scarcely ever necessary to repeat the dose, provided the animal is allowed a few scalded shorts.

If the liver is supposed to be inactive, give, daily, a tea-spoonful of golden seal in the food.

If the animal void worms with the fæces, then give a tea made from cedar boughs, or buds, to which add a small quantity of salt.

FOOTNOTE:

[18] Olive oil will answer the same purpose.

SCOURS.

In scours, the surface evaporates too little of the moisture, and should be relaxed by diffusible stimulants in the form of ginger tea. The treatment that we have found the most successful is as follows: take four ounces raw linseed oil, two ounces of lime water; mix. Let this quantity be given to a sheep on the first appearance of the above disease; half the quantity will suffice for a lamb. Give about a wine-glass full of ginger tea at intervals of four hours, or mix a small quantity of ginger in the food. Let the animal be fed on gruel, or mashes of ground meal. If the above treatment fails to arrest the disease, add half a tea-spoonful of powdered bayberry bark. If the extremities are cold, rub them with the tincture of capsicum.

DIZZINESS.

Mr. Gunther says, "Sheep are often observed to describe eccentric circles for whole hours, then step forwards a pace, then again stop, and turn round again. The older the disease, the more the animal turns, until at length it does it even in a trot. The appetite goes on diminishing, emaciation becomes more and more perceptible, and the state of exhaustion terminates in death. On opening the skull, there are met, either beneath the bones of the cranium, or beneath the dura mater,[19] or in the brain itself, hydatids varying in number and size, sometimes a single one, often from three to six, the size of which varies: according as these worms occupy the right side or the left, the sheep turns to the right or left; but if they exist on both sides, the turning takes place to the one and the other alternately.

"The animal very often does not turn, which happens when the worm is placed on the median line; then the affected animal carries the head down, and though it seems to move rapidly, it does not change place. When the hydatid is situated on the posterior part of the brain, the animal carries the head high, runs straight forward, and throws itself on every object it meets."

_Treatment._--Take

Powdered worm seeds, (_chenopodium } 1 ounce. anthelminticum_,) } " sulphur, half an ounce. " charcoal, 2 ounces. Linseed, or flaxseed, 1 pound.

Mix. Divide into eight parts, and feed one every morning. Make a drink from the white Indian hemp, (_asclepias incarnata_,) one ounce of which may be infused in a quart of water, one fourth to be given every night.

FOOTNOTE:

[19] The membrane which lines the interior of the skull.

JAUNDICE.

This malady generally involves the whole system in its deranged action. It is recognized by the yellow tint of the conjunctiva, (white of the eye,) and mucous membranes lining the nostrils and mouth. We generally employ for its cure

Powdered mandrake, 1 tea-spoonful. " ginger, 1 tea-spoonful. " golden seal, 2 tea-spoonfuls.

Mix. Divide into two parts. Give one dose in the morning, and the other at night. An occasional drink of camomile tea, a few bran mashes, and boiled carrots, will complete the cure.

INFLAMMATION OF THE KIDNEYS.

A derangement of these organs may result from external violence, or it may depend on the animal having eaten stimulating or poisonous plants.

Its symptoms are, pain in the region of the kidneys; the back is arched, and the walk stiff and painful, with the legs widely separated; there is a frequent desire to make water, and that is high colored or bloody; the appetite is more or less impaired, and there is considerable thirst.

The indications are, to lubricate the mucous surfaces, remove morbific materials from the system, and improve the general health.

We commence the treatment by giving

Poplar bark, finely powdered, 1 ounce. Pleurisy root, " " 1 tea-spoonful.

Make a mucilage of the poplar bark, by stirring in boiling water; then add the pleurisy root; the whole to be given in the course of twenty-four hours. The diet should consist of a mixture of linseed, boiled carrots, and meal.

WORMS.

The intestinal worms generally arise from impaired digestion. The symptoms are, a diminution of rumination, wasting away of the body, and frequent snorting, obstruction of the nostrils with mucus of a greater or less thickness.

_Compound for Worms._

Powdered worm seed, } " skunk cabbage, } equal parts. " ginger, }

Dose, a tea-spoonful night and morning in the fodder.

DISEASES OF THE STOMACH FROM EATING POISONOUS PLANTS.

_Treatment._--Take the animal from pasture, and put it on a boiled diet, of shorts, meal, linseed, and carrots. The following alterative may be mixed in the food:--

Powdered marshmallows, 1 ounce. " sassafras bark, 2 ounces. " charcoal, 2 ounces. " licorice, 2 ounces.

Dose, one table-spoonful every night.

SORE NIPPLES.

Lambs often die of hunger, from their dams refusing them suck. The cause of this is sore nipples, or some tumor in the udder, in which violent pain is excited by the tugging of the lamb. Washing with poplar bark, or anointing the teats with powdered borax and honey, will generally effect a cure.

FRACTURES.

The mending of a broken bone, though somewhat tedious, is by no means difficult, when the integuments are not torn. Let the limb be gently distended, and the broken ends of the bone placed in contact with each other. A piece of stiff leather, of pasteboard, or of thin shingle, wrapped in a soft rag, is then to be laid along the limb, so that it may extend an inch or two beyond the contiguous part. The splints are then to be secured by a bandage of linen an inch and a half broad. After being firmly rolled up, it should be passed spirally round the leg, taking care that every turn of the bandage overlaps about two thirds of the preceding one. When the inequality of the parts causes the margin to slack, it must be reversed or folded over; that is, its upper margin must become the lower, &c. The bandage should be moderately tight, so as to support the parts without intercepting the circulation, and should be so applied as to press equally on every part. The bandage may be occasionally wet with a mixture of equal parts of vinegar and water.

COMMON CATARRH AND EPIDEMIC INFLUENZA.

The seat of the disease is in the mucous membrane, which is a continuation of the external skin, folded into all the orifices of the body, as the mouth, eyes, nose, ears, lungs, stomach, intestines and bladder; its structure of arterial capillaries, veins, arteries, nerves, &c., is similar to the external skin; its most extensive surfaces are those of the lungs and intestines, the former of which is supposed to be greater than the whole external surface of the body.

The healthy office of this membrane is to furnish from the blood a fluid called mucus, to lubricate its own surface, and protect it from the action of materials taken into the system. The mucous membrane and the external surface of the body seem to be a counterpart of each other, and perform nearly the same offices; hence, if the action of one is suppressed, the other commences the performance of its office; thus a cold which closes the skin immediately stops the perspiration, which is now forced through the mucous membrane, producing the discharge of watery humors, pus intermixed with blood, dry cough, emaciation, &c. There are two varieties of this disease; the first is called _common catarrh_, which proceeds from cold taken in pasture that is not properly drained, also from atmospheric changes; it may also proceed from acrid or other irritating effluvia inhaled in the air, or from poisonous substances taken in the stomach in the form of food. The second variety is called _epidemic influenza_, and is produced by general causes; the attack is sometimes sudden; although of nearly the same nature as the first form, it is more obstinate, and the treatment must be more energetic. It is very difficult to lay down correct rules for the treatment of this malady, under its different forms and stages. The principal object to be kept in view is, to equalize the circulation, remove the irritating causes from the organs affected, and restore the tone of the system.

For this purpose, we make use of the following articles:--

Horehound, (herb,) 1 ounce. Marshmallow, (root,) 1 ounce. Powdered elecampane, (root,) half an ounce. " licorice, " half an ounce. Powdered cayenne, half a tea-spoonful. Molasses, 2 table-spoonfuls. Vinegar, 2 table-spoonfuls.

Mix, pour on the whole one quart of boiling water, set it aside for two hours, then strain through cotton cloth, and give a table-spoonful night and morning.[20] If the bowels are constipated, a dose of linseed oil should precede the mixture. No water should be allowed during the treatment.

The following injection may be used:--

Powdered bayberry bark, 1 ounce. " gum arabic, half an ounce. Boiling water, 1 pint.

Stir occasionally while cooling, and strain as above.

The legs and ears should be briskly rubbed with tincture of capsicum; this latter acts as a counter-irritant, equalizes the circulation, and, entering into the system, gives tone and vigor to the whole animal economy.

FOOTNOTE:

[20] This preparation undergoes a process of fermentation in the course of forty-eight hours, and should therefore only be made in sufficient quantities for present use.

CASTRATING LAMBS.

The lambs are first driven into a small enclosure. Select the ewe from the ram lambs, and let the former go. Two assistants are necessary. One catches the lambs; the other is seated on a low bench for the purpose of taking the lamb on his lap, where he holds it by the four legs. The operator, having previously supplied himself with a piece of waxed silk and the necessary implements, grasps the scrotum in his left hand. He then makes an incision over the most prominent part of the testicle, through the skin, cellular structure, &c. The testicle escapes from the scrotum. A ligature is now passed around the spermatic artery, and tied, and the cord is severed, bringing the testicle away at one stroke of the knife. As soon as the operation is completed, the animal is released. The evening is the best time for performing the operation, for then the animal remains quiet during the night, and the wound heals kindly.

NATURE OF SHEEP.

"The sheep, though in most countries under the protection and control of man, is not that stupid and contemptible animal that has been represented. Amidst those numerous flocks which range without control on extensive mountains, where they seldom depend upon the aid of man, it will be found to assume very different character. In those situations, a ram or a wether will boldly attack a single dog, and often come off victorious; but when the danger is more alarming, they have recourse to the collected strength of the whole flock. On such occasions, they draw up into a compact body, placing the young and the females in the centre, while the males take the foremost ranks; keeping close by each other. Thus an armed front is presented to all quarters, and cannot be easily attacked, without danger or destruction to the assailant. In this manner they wait with firmness the approach of the enemy; nor does their courage fail them in the moment of attack; for when the aggressor advances to within a few yards of the line, the rams dart upon him with such impetuosity, as to lay him dead at their feet, unless he save himself by flight. Against the attack of a single dog, when in this situation, they are perfectly secure."

THE RAM.