MEDICAL TREATMENT.—After the animal once becomes infected with these
grubs, bore holes (trephine) through the skull with a sharp instrument
made for this purpose and remove the grubs.
HOVEN.
(_Bloating—Acute Tympanites—Acute Indigestion_)
CAUSE.—Hoven is caused by various kinds of food which produce indigestion
or fermentation and resultant gases in the rumen or paunch. When sheep
are first turned into young clover, they eat so greedily of it that
bloating frequently results. Turnips, potatoes and cabbage may also
produce it. Middlings and corn meal also frequently give rise to it.
In this connection it may be stated that an excessive quantity of any
food, before mentioned, may bring on this disorder, or it may not be due
to excessive eating but to eating too fast. Sometimes the quality of
food is at fault. Grass, clover or alfalfa, when wet with dew or rain
soaked, frequently produce digestive disorders and bloating follows.
Frozen roots or potatoes covered with white frost should be regarded
as dangerous. When food has been eaten too hastily or when it is cold
and wet, the digestive process is imperfectly performed and the food
contained in the paunch ferments, during which process large quantities
of gas are formed. This same result may follow when a sheep is choking,
as the obstruction in the gullet prevents the eructation or passing of
gas from the stomach so that the gas continues to accumulate until severe
bloating results.
SYMPTOMS.—The swelling of the left flank is very characteristic, as in
well marked cases the flank at its upper part rises above the level
of the backbone and when struck with the tips of the fingers emits a
drum-like sound. The animal has an anxious expression, moves uneasily
and is evidently distressed. If relief is not obtained in time the sheep
breathes with difficulty, reels in walking or standing and in a short
time falls down and dies from suffocation. The distention of the stomach
or rumen may become so great that it pushes the diaphragm (the membrane
separating the lung and intestinal cavity) forward against the lungs, so
as to squeeze and stop their movements, thus preventing the animal from
breathing and in some instances the case may be complicated by a rupture
of the stomach.
TREATMENT.—Do not waste any time. Puncture about three inches downward
and forward from the point of the hip bone with a clean sharp knife, or
any instrument that is clean and sharp. A special instrument made for
this purpose, the trocar, is a very useful instrument.
Sometimes bloating becomes chronic, and if such is the case dissolve
two teaspoonfuls of Turpentine in one-half pint of milk and drench the
animal very carefully, as some of this drench may escape into the lungs
and produce fatal pneumonia. Set a sheep upon its haunches to give the
medicine; if it coughs let it down quickly to prevent strangulation.
INDIGESTION.
(_Dyspepsia_)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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