FARMING NOTES

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 56, Issue 4016, 23 February 1938, Page 5

FARMING NOTES

HOSPITAL PADDOCK. CARE OF AILING SHEEP. SIMPLIFIES ATTENTION. It would not be far off the mark to say that a property is lacking in improvements unless a paddock has been set up for the purpose of giving that close attention needed by ailing or injured stock. It requires only a little reasoning to appreciate that invalids among sheep, cattle and horses need to be isolated and attended to just as do the ailing in the human race. An all too common procedure is for owners or managers to treat the ailing whether it be for injuries or disease, and then to turn them out with the healthy stock. They might not be seen again for weeks, and in the case of infectious diseases a grave risk exists of healthy animals becoming affected. The incidence of many diseases could be reduced considerably and many lives saved if isolation facilities were provided, and special attention given to the ailing stock. But with a hospital paddock in existence, the affected sheep can be treated and dressed, turned out into the handy paddock and mustered every second or third day for further attention. Running sheep affected with foot-rot through a foot bath, or applying some specific to those blown by flies and then turning the lot among the flock, will never effect cures. With a small yard erected in the paddock set aside and kept for the invalids, ailing sheep can be attended to with a minimum of trouble. Apart from precluding healthy sheep from becoming affected, observations can be made on how the invalids are progressing, and they can be given

that care likely to bring about cures. A great failing with too many sheepmen is that they pay too little heed to suspicious cases among the flock. The first intimation they gei* of some disease being present, is when carcases are seen in the paddocks. A hospital paddock will not prevent sheep stricken with a malignant disease from dying, but ky segregating any suspicious cases and observing the stages, a great deal of information is likely to be gained and, more important still, risk of a possible contagious disease affecting all or most of the flock is less likely.