Drenching Sheep.

Woodville Examiner, Volume XIII, Issue 2386, 1 July 1895, Page 2

Drenching Sheep.

Addressing the A. & P. Society at Napier, Prefessor Limon said :—He strongly deprecated the use of arsenical drenches, which flew straight to the blood, accumulated in indissoluble deposits in the stomach, and undermined the constitution. The system which his firm employed was to drench the ewes as soon as the lambs were taken away with a mixture to raise the constitution. Then they drenched the ewes a fortnight after the ram had been taken away, repeating -the dose twice afterwards at intervals of three weeks. They did this not for the sake of the ewes, but to secure the lambs which were to follow. Then it was necessary to drench the lambs at two months old. Up to two months of age the lambs were not supposed to have any disease, being sustained by their mother’s milk; lambs under two months (drenched at docking time) should be allotted not more than half a a dose. Five to nine weeks afterwards the lambs should be dosed again. It was desirable, first of all, to give the lambs lung drench, then a tape drench if necessary, and then a lung and liver drench. It was highly improper to give a lung and purgative drench at the same time, or to give a purgative drench in any case on an empty stomach. When the lambs became two-tooths, then they must be drenched again. It would thus be seen that his firm’s process embraced seven drenches, three for the ewe and four for the lambs, the whole treatment to cost Bid for the seven drenches. He advised the burying or burning of all dead sheep on the runs, and said attention to this matter would well repay owners for all trouble. Old camps were a fertile source of disease. In New South Wales when they took over a place they insisted that if these could not be burned or otherwise destroyed, they should be fenced iu and wire netted. Drenches should not be given too fast, bqt should be gradually.