Bleeding from the ears or tail, as is commonly practised, rarely
extracts a quantity of blood sufficient to do any good where bleeding is
indicated. To bleed from the eye-vein, the point of a knife is usually
inserted near the lower extremity of the pouch below the eye, pressed
down, and then a cut made inward toward the middle of the face.
Bleeding from the angular or cheek-vein is recommended, in the lower
part of the cheek, at the spot where the root of the fourth tooth is
placed, which is the thickest part of the cheek, and is marked on the
external surface of the bone of the upper jaw by a tubercle,
sufficiently prominent to be very sensible to the finger when the skin
of the cheek is touched. This tubercle is a certain index to the
angular vein, which is placed below. The shepherd takes the sheep
between his legs; his left hand more advanced than his right, which he
places under the head, and grasps the under jaw near to the hinder
extremity, in order to press the angular vein, which passes in that
place, for the purpose of making it swell; he touches the right cheek at
the spot nearly equidistant from the eye and mouth, and there finds the
tubercle which is to guide him, and also feels the angular vein swelled
below this tubercle; he then makes the incision from below upward, half
a finger's breadth below the middle of the tubercle. When the vein is no
longer pressed upon, the bleeding will commonly cease; if not, a pin may
be passed through the lips of the orifice, and a lock of wool tied round
them.
For thorough bleeding, the jugular vein is generally to be preferred.
The sheep should be firmly held by the head by an assistant, and the
body confined between his knees, with its rump against a wall. Some of
the wool is then cut away from the middle of the neck over the jugular
vein, and a ligature, brought in contact with the neck by opening the
wool, is tied around it below the shorn spot near the shoulder. The vein
will soon rise. The orifice may be secured, after bleeding, as before
described.
The good effects of bleeding depend almost as much on the _rapidity_
with which the blood is abstracted, as the _amount_ taken. This is
especially true in acute diseases. _Either bleed rapidly or do not bleed
at all._ The orifice in the vein, therefore, should be of some length,
and made lengthwise with the vein. A lancet is by far the best
implement; and even a short-pointed penknife is preferable to the
bungling gleam. Bleeding, moreover, should always be resorted to, when
it is indicated at all, as nearly as possible to the _commencement_ of
the malady.
The amount of blood drawn should never be determined by admeasurement,
but by constitutional effect--the lowering of the pulse, and indications
of weakness. In urgent cases--apoplexy, or cerebral inflammation, for
example--it would be proper to bleed until the sheep staggers or falls.
The quantity of blood in the sheep is less, in comparison, than that in
the horse or ox. The blood of the horse constitutes about one-eighteenth
part of his weight; and that of the ox at least one-twentieth; while
that of the sheep, in ordinary condition, is one-twenty-second. For this
reason, more caution should be exercised in bleeding the latter,
especially in frequently resorting to it; otherwise, the vital powers
will be rapidly and fatally prostrated. Many a sheep has been destroyed
by bleeding freely in disorders not requiring it, and in disorders which
did require it at the commencement, but of which the inflammatory stage
had passed.