The "swelled neck" in lambs is, like the goitre, or bronchocele, an
enlargement of the thyroid glands, and is strikingly analogous to that
disease, if not identical with it. It is congenital. The glands at birth
are from the size of a pigeon's egg to that of a hen's _egg_, though
more elongated and flattened than an egg in their form. The lamb is
exceedingly feeble, and often perishes almost without an effort to suck.
Many even make no effort to rise, and die as soon as they are dropped.
It is rare, indeed, that one lives.
A considerable number of lambs annually perish from this disease, which
does not appear to be an epizooetic, though it is more prevalent in some
seasons than in others. It does not seem to depend upon the water, or
any other natural circumstances of a region, as goitre is generally
supposed to, since it may not prevail in the same flock, or on the same
farm, once in ten years; nor can it be readily traced to any particular
kind of food. When it does appear, however, its attacks are rarely
isolated; from which circumstance some have inferred that it is induced
by some local or elimentary cause. Losses from this disease have ranged
from ten per cent. to twenty, thirty, and even fifty per cent. of the
whole number of lambs. Possibly, high condition in the ewes may be one
of the inducing causes.
_Treatment._ None is known which will reach the case. Should one having
the disease chance to live, it would scarcely be worth while to attempt
reducing the entanglement of the glands. Perhaps keeping the
breeding-ewes uniformly in fair, plump, but not _high_ condition, would
be as effectual a preventive as any.