MORTALITY AMONG LAMBS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10131, 3 December 1910, Page 3

MORTALITY AMONG LAMBS.

DUE TO CONGESTION 0 ' KIDNEYS.

During the present season several cases of mortalilt . - have come under notice of the officers of the Live Stock Diviaion of the Agricultural Department. At the same time it ia satisfactory to note that the dissemination amongst sheepowner.i of knowledge concerning tbia trouble has had the effect of reducing the annual mortality to a much lower figure than was the case a few years bask. The most noticeable feature after a post mortem is made is the condition of the kidney*, which are in a state of acute congestion, being soft and pulpy in appearance, and totally incapable of performing their normal function. lhe condition ig brought about through overnutrition of the lamb), and it is almost invariably single lambs which suffer, they having available the same quantity of milk which in the case of twins has to be shared between the two. lhe remedy is simple—namely, relief of the plethoric condition of the body by bleeding; and the bleeding can be done ly cutting and tailing the lambs as soon as indications of the trouble in a flock are noted. In one c r two instances the trouble bss shown itself among lamba after being cut and tailed, when the searing iron has been used. Now, apart from this particular trouble, the use of the searing iron is open to no objection, but there is no doubt that in cases where the ewes are doing well and are in good feed and producing plenty of good milk it is better as a precautionary measure: against this plethoric condition of lambs not to sear ihem When they are tailed but to carry or.t the operation in a cletn place—preferably temporary yards formed of hurdles, in a clean paddock—and allow Jthem to bleed. .If done in old sheepyards there ii always a risk of blood-poisoning, but this can be avoided by marking the lambs in clean paddocks.