File:The sheep and lamb, a practical manual on the sheep and lamb in health and disease (1887) (14585886777).jpg

Identifier: sheeplambpractic00walk (find matches)
Title: The sheep and lamb, a practical manual on the sheep and lamb in health and disease
Year: 1887 (1880s)
Authors: Walker, John
Subjects: Sheep
Publisher: London, Jack
Contributing Library: UMass Amherst Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

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ajority of ewes have only been a short time im-pregnated. We find that ergot has much more powerto cause abortion when the fcetus is getting more fullygrown. The action of ergot is to cause unnatural andcontinuous pains in the walls of the uterus, contractingthat part, and inducing the animal to cast ofl its young,as in case of natural parturition. Howbeit, when thefoetus is small, the walls of the uterus do not press soclosely upon it, and the mother does not thereforehave the desire to get rid of it. Ergot is commonlyo-iven to women and all kinds of animals to hastenlabour, where the professional attendant deems it pru-dent to quicken the pains, but this drug must not beused by any unqualified person, or the most seriousresults might follow. Some such flocks as breed houselambs at the latter end of the year might be affected,but the chances are much against it, as ergot is foundonly in matured bents of grass; sheep, consequently,mostly escape it, as they in a great measure feed upon
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i^ ABORTION. 113 young grass blades, rejecting the older plants. While,therefore, we allow that ergot is one of the mostcommon causes of abortion in cows, wholesale casesof miscarriage in ewes cannot be often attributedthereto. Amongst unwholesome food is fog, or coarse grass,with no admixture of young grass, heated corn, mouldyor over-ripened hay, frosted roots, or too many mangelearly in the season, before they are matured in theclamps. Any food that is abnormally hard to digest isalso very liable to cause untimely birth, and an excessof roots without some dry food should always beavoided. UmvJiolesome Water.—Ewes do not suffer so much ascows from drinking unwholesome water, for sheep needbut little moisture in excess of that provided in theirsucculent food. But in long frosts, when the groundis not covered with snow—so frequently occurringwhen the ewes are in an advanced stage of pregnancy—they are obliged to subsist on dry food. Then theydrink freely; and too often their onl

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