Cattle and Sheep - A Practical Manual about Breeds and Breeding, Foods and Feeding and General Management

Darley Matheson

• Publisher: Addison Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781447464693
• eBook ISBN: 9781528764995
• Topic: Technik & Maschinenbau
• Subtopic: Tierhaltung

This book contains a practical manual on owning cattle and sheep, including information on breeds and breeding, foods and feeding, and general management. A detailed and extensive treatise on the subject complete with a wealth of useful information and helpful illustrations, this text will be of much value to the professional sheep and cattle owner, and would make for a worthy addition to collections of farming literature. The chapters of this book include: 'General Management, Diary Cattle: The Yorkshire – The Kerry and Dexter Kerry – Shetlanders', 'The Dairy Cow and Dairy Cattle', 'Graziers' Cattle', 'Cattle for Export', 'Dentition of Cattle', 'Segregation and Isolation', 'Specific Diseases', 'The Digestive Apparatus in Cattle and Sheep and Digestive Disorder', and much more. We are proud to republish this text here complete with a new introduction on cattle farming.

CHAPTER XXVII

SOME DISEASES OF SHEEP

Liver-Rot or Fluke Disease

THE majority of shepherds, more especially those shepherding in marshy and low-lying lands, are familiar with liver-rot or fluke disease. Sometimes whole flocks are decimated with this trouble; in fact, liver-rot must be considered one of the principal scourges affecting sheep and lambs, more especially the latter. Certain districts are notorious for this trouble; in fact, so bad that it is impossible to keep sheep. The best preventative against liver-rot are the upland pastures, for the simple reason that the life cycle of the parasite cannot be continued without an intermediary host, and the intermediary host in the case of the liver fluke is the fresh-water snail or some other allied species of the snail tribe. When sheep are affected with liver fluke, or rather, we ought to say, badly infested with these pests, they soon begin to lose condition, become pendulous in the belly, hollow in the flanks, yellow on the skin, and finally pass into a stage of emaciation and die. Liver-rot, as the name implies, is a trouble affecting the liver, in reality, the bile ducts, and it is in these ducts and the gall bladder that the cause of the trouble is found, in the form of fluke-shaped worms, and the particular worm is known as Distoma Hepaticum. The liver fluke is found in the bile ducts of other animals besides sheep, but not to any extent, consequently it does very little harm in them. Its effect upon the sheep is to cause obstruction in the bile ducts—catarrhal inflammation—and this leads to impairment of the functions of the liver, followed by a variety of other troubles, associated with the digestive glands, and the alimentary canal. The life-history of the liver fluke has been thoroughly worked out by several investigators, so that liver-rot is an affection which is properly understood. There is no ambiguity in either its course, symptoms, or the best methods of dealing with it. The treatment of individual animals is of very little service amongst a flock of sheep. Prevention must be the shepherd’s watchword, though it is by no means an easy matter when the pasturage is favourable to the development of this disease. If the life cycle of the invading parasites can be broken, the progress of the disease may be arrested. In size, the liver fluke is about half to three-quarters of an inch long, and before it develops into the adult parasite it undergoes a most remarkable metamorphosis. Liver-rot is rare in summer, but in the autumn and spring it is prevalent. Its distribution is almost cosmopolitan. The investigations of Thomas did much to clear up many matters which were hitherto very obscure. Further, he estimated that two hundred liver flukes will yield 7,500,000 ova. The ova do not undergo segmentation, and the embryo is only developed after they have arrived in the bile ducts, in the intestine of their host or, what is more frequent, when they have found their way into the water after being expelled with the ejecta of the sheep. In summer the embryo is completely formed in from three to six weeks. Space forbids the author to go into the life-history of the parasite, but it is well worth while for any one interested in the matter to do so. It is the herbage on damp pastures that becomes infested with the last phase of the parasite’s existence outside the body of the host. This is its cercarian form. The cercariæ are found on the lower leaves of plants, and when these are consumed by sheep, the adult parasites are ultimately developed. The cercariæ can remain on the pasture, so long as the ground remains moist, but in dry weather there is less life in the embryonic fluke. Directly the cercariæ arrive at the stomach the outer case of the immature parasite is dissolved and the parasite set free. It then penetrates to the bile duct, where it remains for several weeks, subsequently passing into the intestine, and evacuated with the ejecta. The ova are liberated when the fluke undergoes decomposition on the grass and then pass through their life cycle to again invade the sheep. Sheep kept in the neighbourhood of salt marshes seldom suffer from liver-rot, and if sheep are affected, it is a very good plan, when feasible, to send them to graze on land in the neighbourhood of the sea,—salt marsh land. Medicinal agents are of very little value in the treatment of liver-rot, but salt, with or without sulphate of iron, and gentian may be tried. A powder composed of one part of salt, half a part of powdered sulphate of iron and four parts powdered gentian, mixed together, may be tried. The dose for each sheep, given with the food, would be one dessertspoonful daily. As previously stated, grazing sheep on upland pastures is one of the best preventatives of liver-rot.

Sturdy (Gid)

This affection is not uncommon amongst sheep and lambs, and most shepherds are acquainted with it. It is sometimes called “Vertigo,” “Staggers” or “Turnsick,” and it is due to the presence of a bladder worm pressing upon some portion of the brain or the spinal cord. This bladder worm represents a larval state of a tapeworm infesting the dog—Tænia Cœnurus—so that if all dogs in country places were kept free from tapeworm, this and one or two other diseases of sheep would gradually die out. The symptoms produced are entirely due to the pressure of the cyst upon the nervous structures on which it presses, and they vary, according to the position of the cyst or hydatid. It is generally a difficult matter to locate the position of a bladder worm; as a rule impossible. Slaughter is the most economical method of dealing with a case of this kind.

Foot and Mouth Disease

(See Specific Diseases)

Husk or Hoose

(See Respiratory Diseases)

Foot-Rot

There are very few shepherds and flock-masters who are not acquainted with this troublesome disease, but it is a trouble which is especially prevalent in marshy localities, consequently in the Lincolnshire and Norfolk-shire fens and in other districts where the land is of a marshy character, foot-rot frequently gives a great deal of trouble. It consists of a suppurative inflammation affecting the sensitive structures of the foot or feet, and it commonly begins beneath the horn of the hoof, either at the coronet or at the toe, and if neglected, the disease gradually extends and the hoof may slough. This disintegration of the horn ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Preface
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Introductory
• I General Management
• II Dairy Cattle: The Ayrshire—The Kerry and Dexter-Kerry—Shetlanders
• III The Dairy Cow and Dairy Cattle
• IV Graziers’ Cattle
• V Cattle for Export
• VI Dentition of Cattle
• VII Segregation and Isolation
• VIII Specific Diseases
• IX The Digestive Apparatus in Cattle and Sheep and Digestive Disorders
• X The Heart and Heart Affections
• XI Respiratory Affections in Cattle and Sheep
• XII Affections of the Central Nervous System
• XIII Parturition and some Affections of the Generative Apparatus in Cattle
• XIV The Urinary Apparatus in Cattle and Sheep and some Affections of it
• XV Some Eye Affections
• XVI Some Skin Troubles of Cattle and Sheep
• XVII Plants Poisonous to both Cattle and Sheep
• XVIII Some Accidents and Diseases
• XIX Minor Operations
• XX Long-woolled Sheep
• XXI Short-wool Sheep
• XXII Mountain Breeds of Sheep
• XXIII Various other Breeds of Sheep
• XXIV Improved Breeds of Sheep and Sheep for Export
• XXV The Shepherd and his Work throughout the Year—Dentition of Sheep—Pedigree Sheep—and General Management, etc.
• XXVI Shepherds’ Dogs
• XXVII Some Diseases of Sheep