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Diseases of Swine

Where a number of swine are bred, it will frequently happen that some of the pigs will have what is called a 'rupture,' i. e. a hole broken in the rim of the belly, where part of the guts comes out and lodges betwixt the rim of the belly and the skin, having an appearance similar to a swellto a swelling in the testicles. The male pigs are more liable to this disorder than the females. It is cured by the following means:

Geld the pig affected, and cause it to be held up with its head downwards; flay back the skin from the swollen place, and from the situation in which the pig is held the guts will naturally return to their proper place. Sew up the hole with a needle, a needle , which must have a square point, and also a bend in it, as the disease often happens between the hinder legs, where a straight needle cannot be used. After this is done, replace the skin that was flayed back and sew it up, when the operation is finished. The pig should not have much food for a few days after the operation, until the wound begins to heal.

Sore Throat in Swine.

This is a swelling of the glands of the throat, attended by wheezing, and general weakness of the animal. Indigo is useful for it; a piece as large as a hickory nut mashed up in water and poured down. Once is generally enough.

Hog Cholera.

Though usually incurable when it occurs, it may nearly always be prevented by putting ashes in the trough with the food once a week. a week.

For the Foot-Rot in Sheep.

Take a piece of alum, a piece of green vitriol, and some white mercury- the alum must be in the largest proportion; dissolve them in water, and after the hoof is pared anoint it with a feather and bind on a rag over all the foot.

Another. Pound some green vitriol fine, and apply a little of it to the part of the foot affected, binding a rag over the foot as above. Let the sheep be kept in the house a few hours after this is done, and then turn them out to a dry pasture.

This is the most common way of curing the footrot in Middlesex. foot Another. Others anoint the part with a feather dipped in aqua fortis or weak nitrous acid, which dries in at once. Many drovers that take sheep to market-towns, carry a little bottle of this about with them, which, by applying to the foot with a feather, helps a lame sheep by hardening its hoof and enabling it to travel better. Some may think aqua fortis is of too hot a nature, but such a desperate disorder requires an active cure, which, no doubt, is ever to be used cautiously.

Another. Spread some slacked quick-lime over a house floor pretty thick; pare the sheep's feet well, and turn them into this house, where they may remain for a few hours, after which turn them into a dry pasture. This treatment may be repeated two or three times, always observing to keep the house clean, and adding a little more quick-lime before putting them in.

The foot must be often dressed, and the sheep kept as much as possible upon dry land. Those animals that are diseased should be kept separate from the flock, as the disorder is very infectious. ficial effect, but where the disease has been long seated, and becomes, in a manner, confirmed -after cleaning the foot, and paring away the infected parts, recourse is had to caustics, of which the best seem to be sulphuric acid and the nitrate of mercury. After this pledgets are applied, the foot bound up, and the animal kept in a clean, dry situation, until its recovery is effected .

But it often happens, where the malady is inveterate, that the disease refuses to yield to any or all of the above prescriptions.

The following mode of treatment, however, if carefully attended to, may be depended upon as a certain cure. Whenever the disease makes its apmakes its appearance, let the foot be carefully examined, and the diseased part well washed, and pared as close as possible, not to make it bleed; and let the floor of the house, where the sheep are confined, be strewn three or four inches thick with quick -lime hot from the kiln; and let the sheep, after having their feet dressed in the manner above described, stand in it during the space of six or seven hours.

In all cases, it is of great importance that the animal be afterwards exposed only to a moderate temperature - be invigorated with proper food and kept in clean, easy, dry pasture; and the disease will be effectually remedied in the course of a few days.

To prevent Sheep from catching Cold after being Shorn.

Sheep are sometimes exposed to cold winds and rains immediately after shearing, which exposure frequently hurts them. Those farmers who have access to the sea should plunge them into the salt water; those who have not that opportunity, and whose flocks are not very large, may mix salt with water and rub them all over, which will in a great measure prevent any mishap befalling the animal after having been stripped of its coat.

It is very common in the months of June and July, for some kinds of sheep, especially the fine Leicester breed, which are commonly thin-skinned about the head, to be struck with a kind of fly, and by scratching the place with their feet, they make it sore and raw. To prevent this, take tar, train oil, and salt, boil them together, and when cold, put a little of it on the part affected. This application keeps off the flies, and likewise heals the sore. The salt should be in very small quanlikewise heals the sore. The salt should be in very small quantity, or powdered sulphur may be used instead of it. To prevent the Scab.

Separating the wool, lay the before-mentioned ointment in a strip, from the neck down the back to the rump; another strip down each shoulder, and one down each hip; it may not be unnecessary to put one along each side. Put very little of the ointment on, as too much of it may be attended with danger.

To destroy Maggots in Sheep.

Mix with 1 quart of spring water, a table spoonful of the spirits of turpentine, and as much of the sublimate powder as will lie upon a dime. Shake them well together, and cork it up in a bottle, with a quill through the cork, so that the liquid may come out of the bottle in small quantities at once, The bottle must always be well shaken when it is to be used. When the spot is observed where the maggots are, do not disturb them, but pour a little of the mixture upon the spot, as much as will wet the wool and the maggots. In a few minutes after the liquor is applied the maggots will all creep to the top of the wool, and in a short time drop off dead. The sheep must, however, be inspected next Prevention and Cure of the Foot-Rot in Sheep.

On suspected grounds, constant and careful examination ought to take place; and when any fissures or cracks, attended with heat, make their appearance, apply oil of turpentine and common brandy. This, in general, produces a very bene- day, and if any of the maggots remain undestroyed, shake them off, or touch them with a little more of the mixture.

A little train oil may be applied after the maggots are removed, as sometimes the skin will be hard by applying too much of the liquid. Besides, the fly is not so apt to strike when it finds the smell of the oil, which may prevent a second attack. This method of destroying maggots is superior to any other, and it prevents the animal from being disfigured by clipping off the wool, which is a common practice in some countries.

Cure for the Scab in Sheep.

The simplest and most efficacious remedy for this disease, was communicated to the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, etc., by the late Sir Joseph Banks; and is as follows:

Take 1 pound of quicksilver, a pound of Venice turpentine , a pint of oil of turpentine, 4 pounds of hog's lard.

Let them be rubbed in a mortar till the quicksilver is thoroughly incorporated with the other ingredients . For the proper mode of doing which, it may be right to take the advice or even the asof some apothecary, or other person used to make such mixtures.

The method of using the ointment is this: Beginning at the head of the sheep, and proceeding from between the ears, along the back, to the end of the tail; the wool is to be divided in a furrow, till the skin can he touched, and as the furrow is made, the finger, slightly dipped in the ointment, is to be drawn along the bottom of it, where it will leave a blue stain on the skin and adjoining wool.

From this furrow, similar ones must be drawn down the shoulders and thighs to the legs, as far as they are woolly; and if the animal is much infected, two more should be drawn along each side, parallel to that on the back, and one down each side, between the fore and hind legs.

Immediately after being dressed, it is usual to turn the sheep among other stock, without any fear of the infection being communicated; and there is scarcely an instance of a sheep suffering any injury from the application. In a few days the blotches dry up, the itching ceases, and the animal is completely cured. It is generally, however, thought proper not to delay the operation beyond Michaelmas.

The hippobosca ovina, called in Lincolnshire Sheep fagg, an animal well known to all shepherds, which lives among the wool, and is hurtful to the thriving of sheep, both by the pain its bite occasions , and the blood it sucks, is destroyed by this application, and the wool is not at all injured.

Our wool-buyers purchase the fleeces on which the stain of the ointment is visible, rather in preference to others, from an opinion, that the use of it having preserved the animal from being vexed, either with the scab or faggs, the wool is less liable to the defects of joints or knots; a fault observed to proceed from very sudden stop in the thriving of the animal, either from want of food, or from disease.

To cure the Water in the Heads of Sheep. "

Of all the various operations by which this distemper may be eradicated, I must, from experience, give the preference to one which will, perhaps, such readers as form their opinions re from theory than practice. A number of medical men have already controverted the fact, and, with the utmost presumption, disputed my veracity to my face, after I had witnessed its efficacy in a thousand instances. It is no other than that of putting a sharpened wire up the nostril quite through the middle of the brain, and by that causing the disease. This is, of all other methods, means perforating the bag which contains the fluid most certain to succeed: but it has this unpleasant appendage annexed to it, if it do not cure, it is certain to kill. dient, but it is in every shepherd's power, and one This method of cure is not only the most expemost expewhich he can scarcely perform amiss, if he attend to the following plain directions:, The operation must be performed with a stiff steel wire, such as is used for knitting the coarsest oiled, and sharpened at the point. Care must be stockings . It must be kept clean, and free of rust, taken, however, that its point be only one-eighth of an inch in length, for if it is tapered like a up the nostrils, fix in the gristle below the brain, needle, it is apt to take a wrong direction in going and torment the animal to no purpose. If blunt which is of considerable toughness, shoving it only in the point, it often fails to penetrate the bladder, have the point of the wire sharp and short. a little to one side; the safest way, of course, is to for the soft part in the skull, which invariably

The shepherd must first feel with his thumbs middle of the head above, where, in two cases out marks the seat of this disease. If that is near the of three at least, it is sure to be, let him then fix the animal firm betwixt his knees, hold the head with one hand, laying his thumb upon the soft or diseased part, and with the other hand insert the wire through the nostril, on a parallel with the seat of the distemper, aiming directly at the point where his thumb is placed. The operation is perthe wire come in contact with his thumb, let him formed in one second, for if he feels the point of instantly set the animal to its feet, and if the weather is at all cold, let it stand in the house overnight.

If the disease is seated exactly in that part quently in a right line with the top of the nose, where the divisions of the skull meet, and consehe must probe both nostrils, when, should he miss the bulb on the one side, he will be sure to hit it on the other.

If the seat of the disease cannot at all be found, and if the animal have all the closed among the ventricles in the middle of the symptoms of the malady the water is then enbrain, and must be treated as above. Nothing but it is hard to cure when so affected. I have can be done in the last case save with the wire, found, on dissection, the fluid contained in many little cells in the centre of the brain, and though missed others. the wire had penetrated some of these cells, it had hundreds, and though I never kept an exact re- By this simple operation alone I have cured gister , I think I have not known it to fail above stances which have come under my observation, once in four times as an average in all the inand some of these I knew to be injudiciously performed , the disease not being seated in a point which the wire could reach. I have at times cured a dozen, and ten, in regular succession, without failing once, and I have again in some cold seasons of the year, killed three or four successively.

Sir George M'Kenzie has insinuated in his book cure, but it is by no means the case. The pracon sheep that I was the inventor of this mode of tice, I understand, has been in use among sheppracherds for ages past, but they were often obliged to perform it privately, their masters, like the pro fessors about Edinburgh, always arguing that the piercing of the brain must necessarily prove fatal.

Sir George has, however, misunderstood my ao-