If there be no wound of the soft parts, the bone simply being broken,
the treatment is extremely easy. Apply a piece of wet leather, taking
care to ease the limb when swelling supervenes. When the swelling is
considerable, and fever present, the best course is to open a vein of
the head or neck, allowing a quantity of blood to escape, proportioned
to the size and condition of the animal, and the urgency of the
symptoms. Purgatives in such cases should never be neglected. Epsom
salts, in ounce doses, given either as a gruel or a drench, will be
found to answer the purpose well. If the broken bones are kept steady,
the cure will be complete in from three to four weeks, the process of
reunion always proceeding faster in a young than in an old sheep. Should
the soft parts be injured to any extent, or the ends of the bone
protrude, recovery is very uncertain; and it will become a question
whether it would not be better to convert the animal at once into
mutton.