Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-08-31
STATE FARMERS
REPORT LOSING
SPRING LAMBS
Investigation Shows the
FloCks of Nebraska Are
Badly Affected With Di-
seaSes of the Stomach.

The state veterinarian has received
complaints that the farmers are
losing their spring lambs.
investigation shows that lambs
are very badly infected with stomach
worms In one flock Is per cent of
the lambs plainly shows something
IS seriously wrong and anothe. had
lost almost one-third of his lambs,
and they were dying at the rate of
two to five daily. The trouble is
confined to the so-called native
lambs.
Farmers handling this class Of
lambs need to be on the lookout
70 this trouble if they are to avoid
seriou. loss during this ninth on
account of the presence of this
worm. Those who make a practice
Of raising March lambs with a
liberal quantity of feed and frequent
changes of pasture are nearly always
able to have them ready for market
in June or July. and thereby avoid
the losses that frequently follow in
July or August on infected pastures,
while those who rear late lambs
on limited pasture and without fire.
quent changes to clean pastures are
the ones who have the most serious
loss.
Pastures Infected.
The early part of the grazing sea-
son the weather was rather cool,
damp and even wet most of the time,
condition very favorable for the
existence of the larval or imma-
ture form of this stomach worm.
The pastures became infected from
the affected ones which have
greater vitality and very rarely
harbor enough of the worms to
effect their health.
The mature worm is blood suck
ing parasite about an inch long and
the sizs OF No. 40 thread and red
dish-broWn in color and is found in
the fourth stomach. The mature
female worm produces large num-
Der Of eggs which pass out with
the droppings. 1t is thought
worms become scattered over the
pasture, These eggs are in various
Stages Of development, some hatch
i'll couple of days and others in
week or 10 days. The first stage or
period after Matching lasts about
two days. During this stage they
are easily killed by drying or freez-
ing.
IT season is favorable they cast
their skins and. enter the second
stage and become inshcathcd in a
membrane which protects them from
Trying and freezing to such an
extent that the pastures are infected
Tor long time. With sufficient
moisture they become active and
develop into stomach worms and
crawl up the stems or leaves of the
various grasses ready to be swal-
lowed by other sheep
Western Sheep Escape.
The western sheep are rarely and
very little troubled with these
worms, for the semi-arid conditions
and the frequent changes of pasture
are not favorable to it's mode of life.
In affected lambs the fourth
stomach is often full of these worms.
The first symptoms noticed may be
as harsh or rough unthrifty appear
ance of the wool and on moving the
flock the affected lambs will drop
bacl. unable to keep up. The visible
mucous membrane arc very pale or
anemic, diarrhea comes on, dark in
color, lamb walks and stands with
MS head down in lisless attitude,
lacking interest i'll what is going on.
In bad cases dropsical swelling are
often under the jaw.
In treating the affected lambs it is
necessary to remove the cause, that
is, to change to dry feed or green
pastures after treatment. Frequent
changes from pasture to stubble
ield, then to corn field and to mca-
lows after haying will often prevent
much trouble With internal parasites.
In many cases it may be advisable
to follow the practice of feeding a
light grain ration during the summer
to enable them to better pass
through an attack. The most sue
cessful method of treating, although
not an easy one, is to give the
lambs about four drains or one table
spoonful of gasoline with about an
equal part of raw linseed oil mixed
with about four ounces of milk as a
drench, by means of a narrow
necked bottle. In drenching the
sheep allow it to stand backed up
against fence held by an assistant,
with head up sufficiently to allow
liquid to flow down the throat. Go
slow and allow time for the lamb to
swallow. The dose for a eve is
twice as much gasoline and oil as for
! lamb.
This treatment should always
follow fast. that is, the sheep
Should be kept off feed II hours, as
over night. Give drench in the morn
ing and keep them off feed about
four hours afterwards. Then light
iced the balance of the day and re-
peat as before for three consecutive
days. Then 10 days later repeat for
three days as before. If the lambs
act as if they were drunk you can
be sure you are using enough gaso-
line and if this is not noticeable the
gasoline should be increased a
little.