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‘Simple
Poultry Remedies

A Book Which Describes in Simple Language
the Symptoms of the Leading Diseases
of Poultry and Tells How They
May be Cured and Prevented
by Simple Methods.

/
By COMPETENT AUTHORITIES

Price 25 Cents

Webb Publishing Company
St. Paul, Minnesota, 1909.

Copyricut, 1909.
Wess PusutsHinc Co.
St. Pau, Minn.

(} Polls | 1)

Introduction

In considering any disease by which poultry is affected
it is well to remember that a cause exists and that the flock
is not safe from further ravages unless that cause is removed.
To continuously doctor members of the flock, even though
the treatment seems effective, while the conditions which
brought on the disease remain, is neither reasonable nor prof-
itable.

The first thing to do, therefore, when any disease or ail-
ment is discovered in the flock, is to determine the cause and
remove it. Jor example, severe colds may be caused by ex-
posing the fowls to drafts while on the roost, or by too tight-
ly closed houses which afford an insufficient supply of life-
giving oxygen for the fowls to breathe. Any number of
remedies for colds could be applied, and for a time would
prove effective by destroying the cold germs in the systems
of the fowls, but if a continuance of the same methods of
housing prevails, more sickness is brought on as fast as cer-
tain specimens are helped and moreover the constant doc-
toring tends to weaken the flock and decreases its produc-
tiveness for some time to come.

Having removed the catise of the disease the next thing
is to kill or cure the ailing specimens. In severe cases
where diseases are contagious or infectious. the former meth-
od of disposing of them is advisable except, perhaps, in the
case of very valuable specimens. In effecting a cure, or at-
tempting to do so, the use of as simple remedies as possible

4 SIMPLE POULTRY REMEDIES

is advised and in no case should harsh remedies, which are
needed only in very severe cases of certain diseases, be ap-
plied to troubles of less importance and which may be alley-
iated by medicines which are less drastic in their action. Al-
though the harsher remedies may cure the ailments, the effect
on the birds is never good.

What the poultryman needs to know is how to recog- ,
nize certain ailments or diseases by their symptoms, what
measures to apply to remove thé cause and what medicines
to give to free the fowl’s system from the trouble without
overtaxing that system in other directions. To provide this
information in the most availabie form is the object of this
book. We have endeavored to make each description plain
and simple and to advise the use of such remedies in each
case, so far as possible, as may be found in the average
household or secured easily at the nearest drug store. Every —
word of advice that this book contains has been tried ana
proved in actual experience and we unhesitatingly commend
it to the poultry keepers of America.

THE PUBLISHERS.

FOOD AS A CAUSE OF DISEASE.

The One-Sided Ration not Alone Destroys the Profit, but
Undermines the Health of the Flock.

By Dr. N. W. Sanborn.

What we feed, and how we feed, makes a difference in
the health of our flock. A one-sided ration, irregular meals,
manner of supplying grain and mash, mar the best plans
made to maintain sturdy stock.

There is not as much disease today from improper feed-
ing as twenty years ago. The old plan was to give a hot,
wet mash of cornmeal in the early morning and a full feed
of corn just before roosting time. The every-day farmer of
fifteen years back paid no attention to the idea that such a
ration was “‘one-sided.”’ He had corn in the barn and corn-
meal in the grain room, and little else. He did not spend
an hour every frosty morning cutting green bone into poultry
food. He thought money wasted if put into bags of meat
scraps. The result was very few eggs in the winter months,
over-fat hens, and lots of birds to bury in the late winter
and early spring months. The all-corn diet led to heavy
hens, baggy behind, with livers over-taxed and digestion up-
set. Eggs would come in moderate numbers in March, but
the one would let up in April.

‘' A Comparison of Methods.

I once had two neighbors who did not feed alike. One
fed the all-corn ration and the other practiced the best feed-
ine he could learn from the papers, and experiment station
reports. Under the old plan of feeding, practicallv no eggs
came between the last of October and the middle of February.
The other neighbor, who supplied the foods needed to main-

6 SIMPLE POULTRY REMEDIES

tain life and also produce eggs, averaged an egg a day from
every two hens in his flock. The first was feeding at a con-
stant loss—the second saw his profits improving with the
coming of continued cold weather. Under the corn diet the
birds were out of condition most of the time and many of
them were dead before the grass was three inches high. The
balanced ration supplied just the needs of body and eggs, did
not over-tax digestion, and was not a factor in producing dis-
ease. :
There is danger also in stimulating fowls for winter egg
production. I have known poultrymen who seemed to rea-
son it Out that if a little spice was good for the birds, more
was better. The result was irritation of egg organs, pos-
sibly an enlarged liver, and all the evils that follow trying to
get too much. It is well to keep in mind that poultry food
needs no more spice than the feed we use on our tables.
When you feed a moderate amount of food, well balanced,
little more is needed for winter eggs and health.

Results of an Unvaried Ration.

The leaving out of some needed food may lead to illness.
There is danger that in our use of the dry mash, hopper
method, we forget the requirements of our birds for green
roots and vegetables. Even the absence of “filling” may
prove the wrong doing of our hens. Except in the very
shortest davs of winter the birds will eat too much grain
and mash if not allowed access to green food of some sort.
The old flock on the farm had a splendid chance to select
seed and leaf from barn floor and horse manger, scratch for
the waste of the mow, and work the dry leaves that blew in
under the timbers of the old shed. Under modern plans we
house and vard the birds so closely that they get no more than
_we give them from day to day.

Different Feed for Different Breeds.
All breeds cannot be fed the same, and have us sure
that results will be the same. The ration that suits the needs

FILTH CAUSES DISEASE 7

of the Leghorn may lead to disease in the Cochin. The free
range flock may stand the full hopper of meat scraps that
would prove the undoing of the shut-in flock of the modern
house.

Let us apply modern methods in a common sense way
that we may see large winter profits. We should not forget,
in so doing, that there are dangers from good foods and high
priced rations. A little thought, some observation of our
birds in their houses, and we may avoid a few of the illnesses
due to improper feeds and wrong methods.

FILTH CAUSES DISEASE.

Bad Air, Impure Food, Drink and Filthy Quarters Produce
Sickness and Death.

By Dr. N. W. Sanborn.

Causes of disease are more important than cures. A
knowledge of prevention is worth more than understanding
how to use drugs in the diseases of chicks and fowls. I like
the tendency of today to ask why birds are ill, rather than
what to do to cure them.

In the long list of causes of disease there is not one that
stands out as prominently as filth. It is not until we begin
to really dig into the subject that we appreciate this fact.
Every poultryman has seen so many successful poultry yards
that were far from perfect in health points that the matter of
filth has to be thought out in connection with outbreaks of
illness. Let me tell you some of the things that will follow
in the wake of “dirt”

Effect of Impure Air.

Filth may attack the fowl in the air they breathe. Chicls
housed in brooders badly ventilated, or crowded into small
Coops, fall yictims to several forms of disease. Whole brood-

8 SIMPLE POULTRY REMEDIES

er flocks have been lost because the owner sought to save oil
by giving little ventilation. Some brooders that supp! ~'~--
ty of pure air in the cold days of March and April fail to do
so in the mild and warm weather of May and June. The
brooder that requires a full flame to warm it in March may
prove a death-trap in early summer. The one that is a
healthy home for fifty chicks in late winter may fail to do
good work in milder days. I know several breeders who can
raise the early chicks and fail in the lots that come off in
late May. ‘The breathed, and re-breathed, air weakens the
chick to the point where disease germs breed easily.

Older stock may suffer from filthy air. The maturing
pullet in the crowded roosting coop, or the winter layer in
the closed roosting closet, is affected by the absence of pure
air. Anything that weakens vitality is a factor in disease
and nothing is more sure to bring trouble than the presence
of air loaded with filth elements.

Even incubators need to be supplied air that is pure.
Allow a leak in the lamp tube, or set the machine in a cellar
that is musty, and hatches are far from satisfactory.

Impure Food and Water.
The eating of filth in the food is not without danger.
Hens and chicks fed a partly fermented mash thrown on the
dirty ground often show indications of cholera or dysentery.
I do not wish to be understood that all birds that take animal
waste with their food become ill as the result of it. On the
contrary I wonder that hens keep well with the treatment
that so many of them get in this line. I simply wish to im-
press on you that there are many dangers to the flock that
live under conditions. far from perfect.
Decayed food is filth.” How many cases of limberneck
we hear of in the summer days! The dead hen under the
‘barn, the strong smelling dead calf in the pasture and the.
spoiling woodchuck in the bush, eee filth that poisons
chick and hen alike.

s

CAUSES OF SUDDEN. DEATHS 9

Drinking water may have causes of illness in it. Be-
tween the heat of the hot weather and the droppings that
may get into it we must watch the water fountain lest we
supply right conditions for an outbreak of sickness.

Pure water is not hard to supply. Clean surroundings
are not out of the question. All out-doors is at hand to draw
on for a bountiful quantity of fresh air. Why not use a lit-
tle thought and time in giving our stock the conditions that
are needed to produce and keep sturdy hens and chicks? I
have worked out many of these problems on my own plant
and know the satisfaction that comes when you can show
chicks and hens both profitable and beautiful. Try this plan
of mine with your stock the coming twelve months.

CAUSES OF SUDDEN DEATHS.

Improperly Balanced Rations and Careless Feeding Result in
Deaths That are Without Apparent Cause.

By Dr. N. W. Sanborn.

Many inquiries come to me seeking light on causes of
death in birds that have no continued illness. A hen seems
to be well today, and tomorrow is found dead on the nest. A
cockerel eats his evening meal at five o’clock and is found
stiff on the ground an hour later. These are two illustra-
tions of the cases I desire to discuss.

It hardly seems possible, to one who is not acquainted
with poultry, that a hen can die with so short a notice of trou-
ble, but I have had cases in my own flock, as well as had my
attention called to many such cases in other yards. Let us
see if we can get an undertsanding of a few of the underly-
ing facts. | . .

The man who owns a dozen hens, in his village yard, re-
eeives little impression if he has one hen die on the nest in

10 SIMPLE POULTRY REMEDIES

the course of a year. Let the same percentage occur in the
one thousand hen plant, eighty hens in a single year, and the
owner is dismayed. As these sudden deaths in hens are
most common in early spring, the loss of eighty birds in a
few weeks startles the owner of the egg farm. The loss of
the hens is something but the cutting out of the egg product
is much more. What is the common cause of these sudden
deaths in laying hens?

A badly balanced ration has been the eae The poul-
tryman of today is good to his fowls. He usually feeds them
too large a ration and it is fat making rather than egg pro-
ducing. The healthy hen needs a growing ration rather than
a fattening one. ‘The line of feed that we use to mature the
pullets in the fall is the one to feed for egg production in
the spring. It is the long continued fattening ration of win-
ter that sets in motion the process that ends in sudden death.
When a well matured pullet, or an inactive hen, in winter is
obliged to overeat in order to get protein food enough for her
daily needs she cannot escape deposits of fat within her body.
The average owner of a few hens feeds too much corn and
cornmeal, bread and pie-crust, flour and meal. He does not
supply the craving for meatscraps, green bone and milk. It
is the animal part of the ration that is forgotten The over-
fat hen becomes weak in muscle, fat taking the place of fiber,
and this is true of the fine muscles of artery and egg ductr
The eggs form, start to pass, and in the act of being ejected
burst the “88 passage or become lodged in the canal. Im-
paction of egg, or rupture of egg duct, is the usual cause of
these dead ee on the nest. A small percentage of the
fatalities are due to rupture of a blood vessel during the
straining process of laying.

Sudden deaths in male birds is usually due to bolting |
their food. The cock, or cockerel, is yarded, is hungry, and
receives his supper of cracked corn. He fills to the limit,
drinks from the water dish, and feels uncomfortable, He

SUNSTROKE It

takes more water, the swelling of grain continues, and he
goes again and again to the water fountain. Acute indiges-
tion comes on, colic is quickly at work and in a short time
the male bird may be still and stiff. I have known a num-
ber of cases like this and a few that have followed the heavy
feeding of whole oats to a fasting male. A tightly filled
crop, a swelling mass of grain, and no wonder we lose now
and then a valuable bird. I had a dead cockerel sent to.me
for examination and advice. I found his gizzard impacted
with whole oats, the passage between the gizzard and crop
swollen to bursting, and the crop itself full of tightly massed
eats. Certainly it was a case of “stoppage!”

These few cases of disease point a lesson to us all. We
need to know more of feeds and ways of feeding, and use
eur knowledge to avoid illness in our flock, If we.would
give the time to learning the best methods of feeding and
care, that we do to doctoring ill birds, we would save money
and failure.

SUNSTROKE.

Overheating or sunstroke occurs but rarely and then
almost always in the case of very fat fowls. The birds
seem to be partly paralyzed, often lying on their sides for
considerable time. They eat well and retain a red color in
face and comb. If kept in a cool place and fed moderately,
with plain, but wholesome food, sometimes they will recover.

Young ducks are frequently affected by the heat and
will become almost perfectly rigid and apparently lifeless.
If placed in a cool, airy location and their heads bathed with
cool water, most of them can-be saved if they are attended
to immediately.

DISEASES TAKEN AT SHOWS.

The Dangers That Threaten The Exhibition Bird and How
They May Be Lessened or Prevented.

By Dr. N. W. Sanborn.

Exhibitors at the winter shows seldom pass a season
without more or less illness in their string of birds. Last
winter was the first time that I ever escaped some illness in
my show birds. The matter is one of importance to exhibitor
and show management and must be better understood by all.

‘There are the diseases incident to the trip from yard to
show. The man who takes his stock in his own wagon from
home to show, seldom has’ serious trouble from the exposure
to cold, wet and wind. Especially does he escape the dan-
gcrs of having his birds smothered in the express car or in-
jured for life because of being tightly packed in the cars. I
know few breeders who have not either lost some stock, or
had some injured, from the close air of the car. Then there
is danger of contracting catarrh, roup, bronchitis or pneu-
monia, from the drafts that the coops are subjected to on
trucks or platforms at junction points. Cocks are especially _
liable to nervous shock in the confusion of the trip, going
rapidly to the bad when back in the home plant.

In the show room the birds are often in dark corners,
the temperature is far higher than in the poultry house, they
are fed a new ration, and subject to the annoyances of many |
passing visitors. ;

To take a show bird from near the steam pipe of the
express car, carry it a mile on an express wagon. in zero
weather and coop it in a public hall under artificial condi-
tions, is trying to the best fowl that any of us own. No

DISEASES TAKEN AT SHOWS 13

wonder that our best show bird sometimes dies before the
opening of spring.

Diseases Caught at Shows.

Then in the show there is danger of disease being taken
from other ill birds. Show managers are lax in allowing
birds plainly ill to remain in the pens long after complaint
has been entered. More shows are coming to the practice of
excluding ill stock from the exhibition.

Roup, canker and chicken pox are the three diseases
most often spread through the shows. Roup and canker
are the winter diseases that are to be most feared. Chicken
pox is more often seen in the fall fairs or breaks out in
show stock a week after they return home. Chicken pox
was almost unknown in the Northern states ten years ago,
but is now being reported in nearly every state.

Long used exhibition coops may hold germs of roup and
catarrh over a whole year, passing on the disease to new
birds when the right conditions are supplied. © Unwashed
water cups may be sources of disease as well as the wood and
metal of the coop.

Preventive Measures.

What can be done to prevent these illnesses? Better
shipping coops should be used. They ought to be made so
that it is impossible to fit them so closely together as to shut
off air from the stock inside. At the same time the birds
need protection from high winds and zero air. Too small,
or low, coops should be abandoned. III stock must be held
at home, even though they seem to be all right to ship. Bet-
ter have an empty coop at the show than infect another’s
birds.

More attention is needed in the cleaning and disinfect-
ing of showroom property. Every feed and water dish should
be boiled and washed before storing away at the end of the
show. It should be someone’s business to see that ill birds

14 SIMPLE POULTRY REMEDIES

are removed from the coops when in the show, or detected
and returned to the owner.

The matter of disease in poultry is attracting attention
and anything we can do to prevent sickness will increase pub-
lic interest in well-bred fowls. If the winter show can re-
duce the number of cases of illness, that late seasons have
seen, more men will enter the race for honors in poultry
competitions.

_ SOME COMMON REMEDIES.

Simple, Effective Poultry Medicines and the Diseases Which
They are Used to Treat.

By Dr. N. W. Sanborn.

Every poultry keeper needs a few simple remedies and
to be ready to use them at the beginning of illness. To
combat disease without a stock of drugs is like doing carpen-
ter’s work without tools. There are a half dozen simple
remedies that should be found at hand when disease is first
noticed. It will not do to wait until you need medicine and
then try to buy it, five miles or a hundred miles away. To
delay in the handling of sickness in our flock is to be beaten
at the very start. 3

Kerosene an Effective Remedy.

Kerosene oil has more uses in poultry disease work than
is realized by the average owner of hens. It is a germ kill-
er of merit, a stimulant, and makes housekeeping of the red-
mites a terror. Kerosene in small quantities is the best
‘treatment for catarrhs of nostrils and throat, as well as for .
destroying contagion through the mucous discharges. Kero-
sene will blister if used too long or too strong, taking off the
outer layer of skin and some of the feathers. I use kerosene

SOME COMMON REMEDIES 15

on the drinking water, as a usual thing, or in severe cases by
injection into the nostrils or throat.

One teaspoonful of common kerosene gently poured on
the top of a dish of water, eight inches across, is dose enough
for simple cases of fall colds or mild roup. Everytime the
bird drinks it gets a little oil into nostrils and throat and a
taste into the crop with the swallow of drink. It gets its
medicine every time it visits the water fountain. It is neces-
sary to have an open fountain so the hen is obliged to take
from the highest point.

Kerosene, in larger quantity, on the surface of a pail of
water, will be found useful in killing the scale insect that is
so common on the shanks of hens. Hold the hen by neck,
wings and legs, and drop through the layer of oil every part
of the infected shanks. A little oil will penetrate the scales.
while the water layer will stop the blistering, the action of
the oil. A few treatments will kill off the last insect and
the shanks will regain part of their original good looks.
Kerosene used on roosts and dropping boards will disturb
the workings of the red mite.

Arsenite of Antimony.
Arsenite of antimony is a remedy too little known. It is |
the best internal drug in the cure of bronchitis and catarrhs
of all natures. It is not to be found in many drug stores, as
it seems to be in no demand for any other purpose than the
one I mention. The dose is very small. One two-hun-
dredth of a grain, in solution, is enough for one dose for a
hen of five pounds Four such doses in a day is quantity suf-
ficient for treatment of bronchitis or colds of most natures.
One grain of the arsenite added to the day’s drink of one
hundred and twenty-five fowls will do all that a larger dose
would do.
Peroxide of Hydrogen.
Hydrogen peroxide is our best outside medicine for pus
or matter. [or the sores of chicken pox, bumble foot, boils

10 SIMPLE POULTRY REMEDIES

and infected wounds, this peroxide destroys the germs that
are multiplying so rapidly. It has little action on sound tis-
sue and can be used without much danger of setting up ad-
ditional inflammation. If pus is present, ‘there will be a foam-
ing of peroxide and matter.

Calcium Sulphide.

Calcium sulphide is worth using in cases of chicken pox,
“sore head,” or vént gleet. It works through the blood and
stops germ growth wherever the blood flows. One grain of
the yellow, strong-smelling drug is mixed with the wet mash
for each ill bird for a single meal. Ordinary cases of illness
require three such doses a day. It is perfectly safe to use,
should be real strong smelling to be of use, and must be push-
ed for results. I believe it to be the only real serviceable
drug to use in the treatment of chicken pox. If given to
chicks of any age I would use a half grain two to three times
a day.

Zenoleum, napcreol, sulpho-napthol, or one of the many
tar preparations, added to water till it is milky in looks,
makes a splendid application to raw surfaces, for washing out
sores, for cleansing nostrils or eyelids.

DROPSY.

This disease usually manifests itself in the abdomen,
where water collects between the tissues. It usually fol-
lows incorrect feeding or filthy surroundings. If much wa-
ter collects, it is well to puncture the skin with a disinfected
needle, being careful not to injure the intestines, and let the
fluid escape. Better feed and more healthful surroundings
and careful care prevent a recurrence of the trouble. A sim-
‘ple tonic, such as a teaspoonful of nux vomica to each two .
quarts of drinking water, is useful... Since birds that have
dropsy usually have some other disease, of which the dropsy
is a manifestation, it is not advisable to breed from them.

DISEASES OF THE HEAD.

Some of the Ailments That are First Seen on the Head and
’ Its Adjuncts—The Symptoms and Treatment.

The head and its adjuncts, especially the comb, are the
places where many of the common diseases of poultry first
manifest themselves and although sometimes such diseases
have gained some headway before they become apparent,
usually if the condition of these parts is noted carefully the
disease may be known in time to effect a cure.

Catarrhal Colds.

Catarrhal colds have similar symptoms to the ordinary
common colds but the addition of catarrhal affection makes
them chronic. There is continuous running at the nostrils
and sometimes an odor on the breath. Occasionally in severe
cases there is a slight rattling in the throat through the
failuré of the nostrils to discharge the matter, which then
runs into the throat.

One of the best remedies jis plenty of fresh air at all
times, especially when they are on the roosts at night and es-
pecially if they are protected from drafts by cloth or burlap
curtains. Half a teaspoonful of creolin may be mixed in
half a pint of water and the bird’s head thrust into the liquid
three or four times with its beak held open with the finger.
Usually the pure air treatment is sufficient, and in most
cases lack of pure air from roosting in close coops is re-
sponsible for the trouble. eect

. Influenza. _ .
_ This trouble has much the same symptoms as a severe
cold: The nostrils discharge constantly and the birds breathe

heavily. Often the heads swell somewhat but there is not

18 SIMPLE POULTRY REMEDIES

the offensive odor which accompanies roup, which has much
the same symptoms so far as the swelling and heavy breath-
ing are concerned. In some cases the eyes are affected, the
lids being swollen until they appear to be almost out of place.
The fowls droop, often resting with the points of their beaks
on the ground. It is usually caused by exposure to sudden
changes of temperature or to inclement weather.

A good remedy is tincture of aconite, 10 drops; tincture
of bryonia, 10 drops; tincture of spongia, 10 drops; alcohol,
about a fiuid ounce. After mixing thoroughly, add half a
teaspoonful to each quart of drinking water, allowing the
birds no other drink. $e

Swollen Heads.

Sometimes that part of the face just back of the nostrils
will begin to swell and continue until it is so large that it al-
most, if not quite, closes the eyes, the swelling being of a
yellowish white color. This does not affect the general
health of the fowl apparently, but is unsightly and is liable to
cause further trouble unless removed.

The affected birds should be confined by themselves in a
clean, dry place and fed a fair ration of wholesome food.
The face should be bathed twice daily with a weak solution
of hydrogen dioxide, composed of three per cent dioxide, one —
part; water, two parts. After this has dried, apply a little
iodoform ointment under the lids of the eyes and in the nos-
trils.

White Comb.

This disease is usually caused by a dibilitated condition
of the fowls, arising from crowded, damp or badly-ventilated
houses, improper feeding, insufficient supply of grit, lack of
vegetable food, etc. The comb and head become white and
scales form. If these scales are pulled off the surface is like-.
lv to bleed. It does not seem to affect the fowls otherwise.

.The poultry house should be cleaned and whitewashed
and made free from dampness and well ventilated. Feed

DISEASES* OF ERE HEAP 19

plenty of clean, wholesome food and give plenty of green
food. It is a good plan to work cocoanut oil into the comb
and head and to put a few drops of chloride of iron in the
drinking water.

Apoplexy.

Sometimes a fowl is found which loses control of its
muscles from no apparent cause. Its head and neck some-
times twist to one side or backward and sometimes it is un-
able to walk. Such cases are usually caused by the rupturing
of a blood vessel, the walls having been weakened by an over-
fat condition of the fowl. Sometimes this occurs when the
bird is not externally fat but when internal fat interferes
with the proper work of the nerves and circulation of the
blood,

Less food and more exercise will prevent other mem-
bers of the flock becoming affected.

Frozen Combs and Wattles.

If a bird is found with its comb or wattles, or either,
frozen, while the frost is still in, it should be removed by rub-
bing gently in snow or cold water. Carbolic vaseline or gly-
cerine may then be applied and the comb will be apparently
as good as ever in a few days but will be frozen much more
easily thereafter. If found after the frost has left the comb
or wattle, saving the member is a more difficult matter. The
best thing to do is to bathe the comb with witch hazel to en-
courage circulation of the blood in it and then use carbolic
salve or vaseline twice a day, keeping the bird in a fairly
warm, dry place. If so severely frozen that the blood does
not circulate and the entire member turns dark, it is best to
cut it off entirely in the manner that game cocks are “dub-
bed.”

The Pip.

Pip is not a disease but is a condition brought about by
fever in the chick, which is in turn caused by bad digestion
or some disease which dries the throat and mouth, or by ir-

20 SIMPLE POULTRY REMEDIES

ritating dust. This causes the membrane on the tongue to
become hard, forming a shell over the end of the tongue. This
should not be removed for its object is to protect the tongue.
It may be moistened with glycerine frequently and if that does
not prove satisfactory a Solutien of boric acid, 15 grains, and
water an ounce, should be used to wash out the mouth and
allay the inflammation.

Inflammation of the Mouth.

This trouble is caused by irritation of the lining mem-
brane of the mouth either from the secretion of an irritating
fluid within, or dust or some poisonous substance from with-
out. The mouth usually contains much slimy matter and
sometimes a white membrane forms under and around the
tongue.

The poultry house should be cleaned and disinfected and
well ventilated always. A variety of food should be fed and
the affected fowls’ mouths should be washed out twice daily
with equal parts of glycerine and water or some such mix-
ture. Freedom from dust is particularly desirable.

Eye Troubles.

Troubles with the eyes seldom exist by themselves but
are usually caused by diseases which affect the fowl] else-
where. Inflammation of the throat and nostrils frequently
extends to the eyes and canker, roup and severe colds af-
fect them. The cure of the main trouble removes the dff-
ficulty from the eyes. Sometimes it is well to bathe them
with a mixture of three parts water and one part witch hazel.
When this is dry mix one part of powdered iodoform with
twenty times its bulk of vaseline and apply the mixture under
the lids of the eyes.

Black Comb.

Sometimes a bird’s comb will become dark, beginning
usually with the points and turning froma purple to blue and
then to black. As a usual thing this is the result of liver

COMMON COLDS 21

trouble or some other internal disturbance and is caused in
the comb by the breaking down of the tissue, which cuts off
the circulation.

The proper treatment is to improve the general health
of the fowl and apply carbolic salve to the comb. Give green
food in the form of cabbage or onions and add a teaspoonful
of muriate of ammonia to each quart of drinking water to
act upon the liver.

COMMON COLDS.

Symptoms, Causes, Preventives and Cures of One of the Most
Prevalent Ailments of Domestic Poultry.

By O. H. Olson, M. D.

Common cold or Coryza is a very prevalent disease dur-
ing fall and winter among poultry and consists of an acute
inflammation of the lining membrane of the nasal passages.
The membrane, as a result of the inflammatory changes, be-
comes red and thickened, and begins to exude a watery or
glairy discharge, which is the product of the inflammation.
On account of these changes that take place and the increased
secretion, the breathing through the nostrils becomes very
difficult, so that the fowl often gasps for breath. There is
frequent sneezing, the bird usually stands instead of sitting
on the perch. It becomes listless, seems to feel cold and is
all huddled up. The appetite becomes poor. The eyes are
watery and injected and there is a running from the nose.

Very frequent exciting causes of this ailment are ex-
‘posure to sudden changes of temperature, overcrowding in
warm, poorly ventilated quarters, also draughts that strike
the fowls while on their roosts, coming through cracks and
crevises and open windows in the hen house. The accumu-

22 SIMPLE POULTRY REMEDIES

lation of filth and droppings may also act as an exciting cause
through irritation. Dampness may also be a cause.

How Colds May be Prevented.

This disease, as well as many other diseases of poultry,
may be prevented by taking proper precautions. In the fall
of the vear the poultry houses should be gone over and giv-
en a good cleaning. There should be a thorough fumiga-
tion with formaldehyde candles, now commonly used for this
purpose, and while this is done the doors and windows and
all openings and cracks should be closed. Then the walls
should be sprayed with coal oil and whitewashed, and in
the whitewash should be mixed some crude carbolic acid. All
cracks and crevices must be closed up so that no draughts can
strike the fowls. The houses should be properly ventilated
and in such a manner that there will be no draughts. All
filth around the poultry houses should be carted away, Dur-
ing the fall and winter in particular the houses must be clean-
ed often. The dropping boards should be cleaned every
day regularly and dusted with sand or earth. Give the fowls
plenty of room, for crowding is detrimental to their well-
being. Feed regularly and in the proper amount.

Some Simple Remedies.

In the treatment of this disease there is probably nothing
that acts so satisfactorily as giving a good physic, for which
give a small dose of common Epsom Salts or castor oil. Then
give aconite and belladonna, one teaspoonful of each in a
glass of water; dose half a spoonful every two or three hours.
Also give quinine, one grain three times daily. Two or
three quarts of hot water is placed in a vessel and four or
five teaspoonfuls either of spirits of camphor or compound
tincture of benzoin is added. Place the vessel near the fowls”
while they are on their roosts at night and let them inhale the
vapor. Menthol is very useful from its power to contract
the fine blood vessels and thus relieve the fullness in the
throat and enable the bird to breathe better. It is best used

PREVENTION AND CURE OF ROUP 23
a
in combination with Eucalyptol, as follows: Menthol, grains
8, Eucalyptol, minims 6 to 8; Liquid Petrolatum, 2 ounces.
Apply this with a swab several times daily in the nasal
cavity.

PREVENTION AND CURE OF ROUP.

How to Recognize, Ward-off and Cure This Destructive Disease
of Fowls.

By O. H. Olson, M. D.

Roup is a very common disease of poultry and usually
occurs in the fall and winter months. It is at times dis-
astrous, making havoc in whole flocks of poultry in a short
time. Every year a large number of fowls die from this
much dreaded’ disease, and, therefore, we should do every-
thing possible to prevent its appearance among our birds.
We should always bear in mind that it is a great deal easier
to prevent a disease, than it is to cure it, and it is chiefly
through neglect and poor management that so many diseases
break out. :

It should be the first aim to breed our birds in such a
manner that they will be full of life and vigor so that they
may be better able to resist disease, and in order to do this
we must breed from strong, healthy birds, and be careful not
to inbreed too closely, which will surely have a tendency to
produce a weakened progeny that will become a prey to dis-

ease.
Causes of the Disease.

Roup is caused usually by overcrowding, dampness and
a filthy condition of the houses, yards and run. The crowd-
ing together of many birds in small coops, where the drop-
pings are allowed to accumulate until the air becomes foul
is a very frequent cause of this disease. Fowls neglected
and weakened by lice and mites causing a weak constitution

24 SIMPLE POULTRY -REMEDIES

are easy prey to this disease. Drafts in poorly constructed
houses, from broken windows, and drafts striking fowls
while on the roosts are other causes.

In order to prevent this disease the poultry houses
should be put in good condition before cold weather sets in.
Fumigate thoroughly, whitewash inside and keep houses,
yards and runs clean. Ventilate properly so as to prevent
dampness, and be careful that drafts don’t strike the fowls.
Feed correctly and keep the birds busy.

ee . The Symptoms of Roup.

The symptoms of roup are first those of a cold. There
is a watery discharge from the nostrils and eyes. This thick-
ens and fills up the nasal cavity and throat, causing difficult
breathing and a rattling in the throat. The head begins to
swell and the eyes close up and bulge out. ‘There is a very
offensive odor from the roupy fowl which is very character-
istic of the disease. It is highly contagious, by contact with
the exudations of the sick birds and also by diffusion in the

alr.
The Proper Treatment.

In the first stage give aconite and belladonna and qui-
nine same as given for cold in the head. Then use a pow-
der composed of equal parts of alum, magnesia and sulphur,
and give a pinch of the powder to each fowl; repeat several
times if necessary. Give castor oil to the sick fowls two
nights in succession. Feed soft foods or bran and corn
meal with a very little red pepper and charcoal Use ten
drops of the following prescription twice daily: Chlorate of
Potash 1 drachm, Chloride of Iron 1 drachm and Boric Acid
1 drachm in six ounces of water. Swab the throat and.nasal
cavity occasionally with peroxide of hydrogen. Pour a gill
of turpentine and a gill of carbolic acid over a peck of lime
and after it has become slacked scatter it freely. over the in-
side of the houses. All sick birds should be isolated and
kept warm and dry. Fumigate with formaldehyde or by
burning sulphur, ;

PREVENTION OF COLDS AND ROUP.

Fresh Air Prevents These Diseases and Tightly Closed Cures
Invite and Foster Them.

By Victor D. Caneday.

At one time we met a gentleman who had embarked in
the poultry business and upon inquiry how his fowls were
doing, he began saying some very hard things about the
White Plymouth Rocks, which he breeds. | Among other
things, he said, “They haven’t sense enough to go in when it
rains. Why, they have nearly all of them got colds and I
expect they will be down sick with roup before long.” We
asked him if he was keeping his poultry house closed at
night, and he:said, “Yes, the doors and windows are all
closed tight, and I have a nice, warm chicken house for them,
too.” We told him at once, that that was exactly what had
caused the trouble, and that we had not at that time (Oct.
19th) put the windows in our poultry houses yet, and the
chickens were running out and in as they chose, rain or no
rain, and we had had no trouble whatever from colds. Tur-
keys are more susceptible to colds than chickens are, and yet
no turkey raiser but what knows that they will thrive and be
healthy roosting out in-all kinds of weather. Our friend
said: “I believe you are right for I have some common
chickert$ which are roosting out in the trees and they are all
doing well.”

The above is a fair sample of the way thoroughbred
fowls are treated by the amateur, and the bad results are
very often claimed to be the fault of the breed rather than
the breeder. In housing stock of any kind we have learn-
ed that it is not the extreme cold which causes colds, roup,
etc., but rather the sudden changes and keeping stock too

26 SIMPLE POULTRY. REMEDIES

closely housed in mild weather. Anyone knows that if they
are accustomed to having a window open in their sleeping
apartment and then close the room up tight for one night,
that they will get up the next morning with a cold, or at
best, with a very disagreeable feeling about their heads. We
have often said and, we believe it to be a fact, that nine out
of ten cases of colds among people are contracted while the
individual is in a close, warm room. When the pores of the
body are open, then look out for a cold) From our experi-
ence with chickens we consider it safe to apply the same
reasoning to their care.

We make a practice of keeping the windows open in our
poultry houses until the temperature is low enough to en-
danger the combs, and we find we have healthier fowls and
obtain better results in winter egg production than by any
other method. One winter we left a pen, containing some of
our early pullets, wide open, as in summer time, until the
thermometer was below zero. Some of them froze their
combs, but none of them had a sign of a cold, and they con-
tinued to lay right along through the winter, even those with
frosted combs. Of course, they were fed heavy or could
not have stood it, hut the experiment proved conclusively to
us two things—it is not a cold temperature that causes fowls
to contract colds, and a frozen comb is not sufficient of itself
to check the egg production.

In housing stock for the winter we like the males by -
themselves and the females by themselves, thus enabling ds
to give the laying stock abundance of fresh air, their combs
being smaller and less liable to injury by frost than the combs
of the males. We regularly open the windows of the lay-
ing pens during the-winter days as soon as the thermometer
registers as high as ten above zero, if it is clear and not very
windy. We hope no one will undertake to handle the large
- combed varieties inthis manner, as, of course, they would
not be expected to withstand the cold that the breeds would
which have smaller combs. ;

ROUP—A FILTH DISEASE 27

Dampness in poultry houses in winter is a fruitful
source of colds and roup and is largely caused by neglect-
ing to open up the houses and thoroughly air them out.

Avoid exposure to sudden changes of temperature and
always provide them with an abundance of pure, fresh air
and there need be little fear of roup getting a foothold among
the biddies this winter.

ROUP—A FILTH DISEASE.

Special Causes of this Disagreeable Disease—Effective Reme-
dies—Means for its Prevention.

By Dr. N. W. Sanborn.

Roup is a disease that is common in our flocks. It seems
to appear usually in the fall of the year, and among the ma-
turing cockerels and pullets. Seldom does the outbreak oc-
cur in summer and it is rare to meet roup before the middle
of October.

Catarrh—indicated by slight running at the nostrils—
may attack the birds at any age, but roup is seldom seen until
the wet days of autumn. I have seen outbreaks of roup that
would have remained cases of catarrh had it not been for
close air and damp coops.

Birds that roost in the trees through the summer and au-
tumn seldom show symptoms of catarrh and roup. It is
when they are closely housed, especially when obliged to
roost over un-removed droppings, that the usual outbreak
of the fall season comes to them.

The open front, cloth curtain, house has done much to
eliminate roup and kindred diseases. The giving up of the
old stuffy chicken coop and the use of the wire front roost-
ing coop has prevented much illness along this line.

Flocks housed in dry, well-aired, clean coops and build-
ings escape roup unless the disease is caught from other

28 SIMPLE POULTRY REMEDIES

cases. Seldom do serious diseases originate under the con-
ditions I have outlined.

The Principal Symptoms.

Roup is well known by swelled heads, closed eyes, bad
smelling discharge from nostrils. If you have ever entered
a house that held through a night a dozen roupy birds you
will never forget the smell that makes a prominent symptom
of roup.

While all cases of running at the nostrils are not roup,
it is well to. bear in mind the danger of such cases running
in the more severe disease. At the first sign of catarrh, sup-
ply health conditions that are right. ‘Better still, understand
and practice prevention of disease.

Suppose you have been having roup in your flock every
fall the past few years! Unless you have cleaned up and
disinfected as never before you will not escape trouble this
fall, no matter how careful you may be in care and feeding.
The old infected earth of the house must be removed and
new filled in. The walls, roosts, droppings-boards, every-
thing that can have disease germs on it, need a thick coat
of carbolated whitewash. This is made by adding one ounce
of carbolic acid to every four gallons of the lime wash. The
wash should be applied to all wood work and the spatters on
the floor will not be wasted.

Effective Treatment.

Cases of roup generally improve with the cleaning uprof

the house, opening up of doors and windows, and less
crowding on floors and roosts. Cases may be hurried to-
ward recovery by the use of some antiseptic “dip,” or a good
“cure” dissolved in the drinking water. Personally I have
depended for over fifteen years on kerosene oil. This is old
fashioned, simple, yet effective. If kerosene is used careless-
ly it may produce trouble but this is true of most of the
medicines and drugs in every day use. Every case of roup
should be housed apart from well fowls. Each sick bird

CANKER 29

should have two or three “dips,” a day apart, in kerosene.
Add one tablespoonful kerosene oil to a pail nearly full of
water. Hold the sick bird with both hands, slowly plunge the
head through the film of oil that rests on the water, taking
the time necessary to count one, two, three and then remove
to a dry house. Repeat this the next day. Place -a few
drops of the oil in every drinking fountain on the plant. Be-
tween the effect of the “dip” and that of the medicated drink-
ing water you should get results that will please you. Do
not neglect the better care—clean houses, dry, pure air in
abundance—in your treatment of roup. Medicine alone will
do little to cure disease if health requirements are forgotten.

CANKER.

One of the Most Frequent Diseases—Its Cause and Treat-
ment.

Canker is a disease of the mucous membrane usually
caused by mold spores. These spores attack the mucous
membrane causing yellowish ulcers or accumulations of hard
cheesy growths. It may be prevented by carefully inspect-
ing all birds before they are placed in the poultry house,
making sure to use none that are affected with canker. Use
only clean, sweet litter material and change it frequently.
Neyer use moldy, musty litter or moldy and musty grain, and
never allow mold or mustiness to develop in the poultry
house during damp weather. Keep the litter material well
stirred up and if it shows any sign of being musty rake it all
out and burn it, then thoroughly clean up the poultry house,
using a good disinfectant freely. One of the best disin-
fectants for this purpose is a mixture of one fluid ounce of
pure creolin in a gallon of water. There are a number of
these molds which seem to be of a parasetic nature, and some

30 SIMPLE POULTRY REMEDIES

of them result in very serious, even fatal, disease, therefore,
you cannot be too careful. After thoroughly cleaning up
the quarters, place the affected birds in a clean, dry coop and
apply a little full strength creolin to the canker spots with a
cotton swab made by twisting a bit of absorbent cotton about
a sharp stick and dipping it in the remedy. This should
be pressed firmly against the sore and slowly and gently
moved over it. Sometimes two or three applications a day
apart are necessary before healing begins to take place. If
the above remedy does not prove effective, use aromatic sul-
phuric acid in the same manner. This can be procured of
any clruggist, only be sure to ask for aromatic sulphuric
acid which is a special preparation.

If the bird is only slightly affected, makes a good re-
covery with no tendency to recurrence of the trouble, there
is no reason why it should not be bred from. Any birds
that have been seriously affected had best be marketed after
they are cured, as one serious attack is liable to be followed
by others.

THE “RATTLES.”

Rattling in the Throat is Not a Disease, But a Symptom of
Disease.

By Dr. N. W. Sanborn.

I do not like to head my article with this wording, but
do so to attract attention of poultrymen who use it in every
day life. I have lately had several requests to be told what
“rattles” was, and what to do to cure it. The disease that
has rattling for the prominent symptom certainly needs
thoughtful consideration.

Rattling in breathing is not uncommon in chicks and old
fowl, in heat of summer Saal cold of winter. It is found in

THE RATTLES 31

poultry yards in bleak old New England and sunny Florida.
I have listened to it in Maryland, and have been told of its
ravages in California.

The Cause of ‘Rattles.’

Rattling in breathing is due to too much mucus in the
throat, windpipe or bronchial tubes. Anything that irritates
the lining of breathing tubes increases the mucous flow and
produces an obstructed breath. Bronchitis, cancer, and
other acute diseases may have this very common symptom
that we are considering. The use of airslaked lime in the
treatment of gapes may give a lot of cases of rattles. The
constant breathing of dry dust, especially if it be gritty and
alkaline, is responsible for some of the cases that have been
reported to me lately.

I have just had a serious case of this sort to investigate
and will use it to illustrate my article. A valuable cockerel
was sent by express to a buyer two hundred miles away. The
shipper did not for a moment think that the bird was any-
thing but well. It arrived at its destination, and was very
much liked by the new owner. As was usual with him, he
looked the bird carefully over and then gave it a small pen
all alone. The cockerel was splendidly healthy, active and
with red comb and wattles. His appetite was good, crop all
right and bowel discharge normal. There were two things
that were noticed, and but little anxious thought was brought
on because of them. First, there was dust stuck all round
the opening in the nostrils, and, second, there was a slight
odor to the breath that was suggestive of roup. As routine
practice this bird was kept along for two weeks and, con-
tinuing well, was mated to ten hens and pullets. Three
days later the bird showed signs of illness, and was rattling
badly. He was hungry, but had difficulty in swallowing
food. Examination showed a dusky color to throat, a coat-
ing of sticky mucus, and rattling in the windpipe. The
throat was swabbed out with a solution of sulphate of copper
and a slight film of kerosene oil added to the drinking water.

32 | SIMPLE POULTRY REMEDIES

The cockerel was given a pen to himself. In four days the
rattling was gone, the bird ate well, and he seemed free from
the trouble. Remaining apparently well for a week, he was
returned to the pen of breeding birds. In four days time
he was decidedly ill, every symptom intensified, and died
two days later.

Now let me tell you the queer part of my story. The
original owner tells me that he had no case like it and the
cockerel seemed to be perfectly well when shipped. A bird
that he has since bought and penned in same run as the other
bird had, has become sick and died of “rattles.” He says:
~“T must have sold-a dead. bird, as no case of rattles ever
comes except as the last symptom of some other illness.” I
agree with him, hold him up as the kind of breeder I respect,
and commend his statement that he wants “to do the right
thing every time.”

What was this disease? It was chronic bronchitis.
The cockerel must have had something of the general roup
nature in the late fall, been apparently “cured,” and the
sudden changes in temperature in mid-winter brought on
the winding up of the disease process. “Rattles” in birds,
old or young, is a serious symptom, and if the stock is weak
from any cause it is not likely to be cured by ordinary treat-
ment. Help must come through prevention. Pure air,
clean droppings boards and floors, sweet food and water,
will do more to prevent “rattles” than all the drugs you can
name. .

WIND PUFF.

An accumulation of air is sometimes fouud under the
skin on growing chicks, making it puff out until sometimes
the chick looks more like a small balloon. This is usually
caused by imperfect nutrition and is more common in change-
able and damp weather. -Usually better feeding and care
will remedy the trouble, though occasionally it is well to cut
a small, V-shaped opening in the skin to let the air escape.

PNEUMONIA AND DIPHTHERIA.

How these Infectious Diseases May be Recognized—The Treat-
ment of Affected Fowls. ;

By O. H. Olson, M. D.

Pneumonia is an infectious disease characterized by in-
flammation of the lungs and a toxemia of varying intensity.
It is one of the most fatal of acute diseases and in the fowl
pursues a very rapid course.

The causes of the disease are exposure to cold, causing
congestion of the lungs, resulting in inflammation; impair-
ed activity of the general circulation; inhalation of irritant
vapors ; and in other cases it is caused by bacteria and disease
germs. It is very common in young birds and fowls that
are molting on account of their being unable to withstand
sudden cold and exposure. Whenever birds are dying from
any cause a careful examination of the carcass should be
made and if the lungs are found very dark in color and dis-
tended with blood it tells the nature of the disease and pre-
ventive measures should then be adopted at once to prevent
or lessen further mortality.

Symptoms and Treatment for Pneumonia.

The symptoms of pneumonia are rapid breathing; the
bird breathes with great difficulty and the breathing is pain-
ful; the bird is indisposed to move about, is sleepy, and does
not notice things around it; the plumage of the bird stands
erect, the wings are drooped and the head is drawn in;
there is usually a discharge from the nostrils, or the mouth,
of a yellowish or greyish fluid tinged with blood; the ap-
petite is lost; there is great thirst, and the bird is usually
constipated.

The bird suffering from this disease should at once be
taken into a warm room. Give the fowl plenty of fresh air

34 SIMPLE POUEERYSREMEDLES

without lowering the temperature of the room too much.
Prepare a flax seed tea by pouring one pint of hot water on
one ounce of flax seed, strain and give to the bird warm,
to drink, every two hours. Give one drop of tincture of
Digitalis in water every three or four hours to mature fowls
and younger ones in proportion. Keep the bowels a little
loose by giving a small dose of Epsom salts or castor oil.
When the bird begins to show signs of improvement give a
one grain quinine pill and ten drops of cod liver ile three
times a day for some time.

ie The Nature of Diphtheria.

Diphtheria is a specific, infectious disease characteriz-
ed by a local fibrous exudate, usually upon the mucous mem-
brane. It is recognized by whitish, greyish or yellowish
patches of false membrane upon the mucous membrane of the
mouth. The disease is highly contagious and is a very seri-
ous affection. The disease is not limited to the mucous
membrane of the mouth alone, but may appear in the throat,
nasal passages, the eyes and extend to the wind pipe and
bronchial tubes. The false membrane which forms upon
the surface of the parts mentioned becomes intimately at-
tached to the tissues, and when removed by force discloses
a raw, bleeding surface.

Symptoms of the Disease.

The bird becomes very listless and the feathers are
roughened. It lies with the back arched and the head drafvn
down to the body. It breathes very rapidly and there is
great difficulty in-swallowing. The bird shakes its head
from side to side and has attacks of sneezing. There is
fever. The appetite is lost and usually there is diarrhoea.
The bird gradually grows weaker and weaker from
prostration. There is a discharge from the mouth which
is thick, grayish in color. The eyes are dilated, injected
and projected. The bird seems to have great difficulty in
walking. On examining the mouth it will be found covered

PNEUMONIA AND DIPHTHERIA 35

with patches of false membrane, or in the beginning simply
small spots which gradually enlarge. This false membrane
may sometimes cause complete obstruction to breathing so
that the bird is rapidly strangled. It is stated on good au-
thority that the diphtheria of fowls is not identical witb
diphtheria in man, and is not communicable to him.-

Treatment for Diphtheria.

When the disease is first noticed to break out among the
birds, measures should at once be taken to prevent the
further spreading of the disease. The sick fowls should
immediately be isolated and kept in a good warm room that
is well ventilated and free from drafts. All birds that die
should be cremated or buried at once. The house, yards,
runs, drinking fountains and feed troughs should be thor-
oughly disinfected by a carbolic acid solution, made strong
enough to destroy all germs. Use carbolic acid three per cent
in thirty per cent alcoholic solution to apply to the patches
of false membrane in the mouth or throat. For internal use
give the following solution: potassium chlorate, one drachm;
boric acid, one and one-half drachms; chloride of iron, one-
half drachm; glycerine, one-half ounce and water, six
ounces. Give ten drops three times a day. All houses should
be thoroughly fumigated with formaldehyde or sulphur.
As birds begin to recover they should be given tonic treat-
ment and stimulating foods. Do not return the sick birds
that have recovered to the flock until ten days after they
have fully recovered from the disease.

BRONCHITIS AND PNEUMONIA.

Two Serious Diseases Common to the Winter Season—Their
Symptoms and The Most Effective Treatment.

By Dr. N. W. Sanborn.

Bronchitis is more common than pneumonia, is more
often-recognized, and is mitigated by the use of medicines.
Bronchitis, under bad sanitary conditions, may run into
uncontrollable pneumonia.

Bronchitis is a catarrhal disease of the larger bronchial
tubes. There is inflammation of the passages, swelling of
the lining membrane, and an out- -pouring of mucous. Ths
discharee runs the course of catarrh in the nostrils; first
thin, then sticky, lastly yellow and half-solid. With highly
acute attacks there is heat of body, rapid breathing, and a
half opened mouth. Appetite is dull, bird is dumpish, and
thirst is evident. On examination, you find little trouble in
nostrils, mouth or bowels. In the beginning of the disease
there is a wheezing sound as the bird breathes. Later, in
poorly treated cases, there is a decided rattling in breathing,
especially when the bird is on the roost in the night. A
slight start will cause the rattling to be heard. 2

Bronchitis is caused by chilling, damp houses and
irritating substances. The every day cause of bronchitis is
chilling from high winds, cold air blowing on the bird
through a knot hole or crack. Dampness and dust increase
the severity of attacks. ©

Treatment of Bronchitis.
Acute cases of bronchitis are best treated with Epsom
salts. One teaspoonful of the salts to every quart of drink-
ing water will reduce the fever, empty the bowels, and

BRONCHITIS AND PNEUMONIA 37

diminish the secretion in the larger tubes. After three
days use of Epsom salts, change to arsenite of antimony.
This is the best drug to use in the second stage of acute
bronchitis as well as in the chronic form of this disease.
One one-thousandth of a grain, three or four times a day is
dose enough for a five to seven pound bird. This éan best
be given in the drinking water. Suit the dose to the size of
your hens or chicks.

Give the ailing birds a dry, sunny, house, free as pos-
sible from dust and breezes. The diet is that mixture of
grain and grit that will best supply the body heat. Better
drop out meats scraps or green cut bones for a few days.

Pneumonia is Usually Fatal.

Pneumonia in fowls is generally fatal. By the time
you notice the illness the bird is struggling for breath. It
has always seemed to me that pneumonia in our flocks is
due to exposure. This is not accepted by all poultry d sease
investigators. A few are beginning to think that, like pneu-
monia in persons, there is some connection between this
disease and mice; no mice—no pneumonia. Whether this
is true, or not, time will prove.

Pneumonia will be known by the following symptoms:
high fever, very rapid breathing, wide-open mouth, total
loss of appetite. The bird stays where it is. It remains
on the roost, or in a corner of the house. I can offer a
little promise of cure. Drop doses (a drop each dose) of
tincture of aconite three times a day can be tried—with the
hope that it will limit the spread of the disease in the lungs.
The air cells are solid (some of them) with a semi-solid
mucous exudation. If the hen has air space enough in her
lungs to get all the oxygen required to maintain life she
may live through the disease. If you see improvement
in five days, be satisfied with the treatment. I need not add
that the sick bird needs hand feeding with wet mash, medi-
cine given with a spoon, and warm and dry quarters away
from other birds.

FOWL TUBERCULOSIS.

An Infectious Disease that is Practically Incurable—How to
Prevent Its Spread.

By Dr. O. H. Olson.

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease caused by bacillus
tuberculosis, the lesions of which are characterized by nodu-
lar bodies called tubercles, or tuberculous tissue that-is dif-
fusively infiltrated, which undergoes softening and may at
last ulcerate. It is one of the most widespread of maladies.
It is rare in cold blooded animals, but is occasionally seen.
among reptiles in confinement. It is an extremely common
disease in fowls, but there are differences in bird tuberculosis
sufficient to warrant its separation from tuberculosis in
man.

Poultry and pigeons, experimentally, are not easily in-
fected with the tuberculosis of people, cattle and other ani-
mals. There seems to be very little danger to birds from the
human virus, while the bird tuberculosis spreads very rap-
idly from bird to bird. The bacillus found in fowls suffering
from tuberculosis resembles that found in man, but is some
larger and appears in more irregular forms and produces
only local inflammatory processes in mammals. -

Symptoms of Tuberculosis.

The symptoms are rapid and progressive emaciation,
shown by loss of weight, wasting of the muscles and prom-
inence of the bones. The comb becomes pale, the bird is
languid, dull and sleepy by degrees. In the latter stages
there is a persistent diarrhoea, which steadily increases in
intensiveness until finally causing death by exhaustion. The
disease may also affect the joints and bones, causing lame-
ness and swelling of the joints. Many of the symptoms of

WORMS IN THE CROP 39

this disease are very similar to those occuring with other
diseases, thus making it difficult to make a diagnosis. The
exact nature of the disease should be confirmed by an expert.
A microscopic analysis demonstrating the presence of the
bacillus is the best evidence.

The disease cannot be cured. All birds that aré known
to be infected should be killed. Do not attempt to save
any bird from a flock that is infected. After the birds are
killed dispose of them by cremation or burying them deep in
the ground. The premises should receive the most careful
and painstaking disinfection. Clean everything thoroughly
and remove all droppings and manure and sprinkle over:
them a five per cent solution of carbolic acid. Wash floors
and walls with five per cent solution of carbolic acid and
treat feeding troughs, drinking vessels and nests in like
manner. Then whitewash the whole inter’or of the poultry
house, adding sixteen ounces of crude carbolic acid to each
pail of whitewash. The yard and runs should also be
cleaned and disinfected. Keep the poultry house open to
sun and air for a period of three weeks before introducing a
new flock.

WORMS IN THE CROP.

A chicken or fowl which has worms in the crop never
is in good condition and never is productive or profitable.
These worms are frequently the cause of poor digestion of
food and of insufficient nutrition of the specimen. An ex-
amination of the crop of an affected bird will show these
worms near the outlet. For adult fowls give one teaspoon-
ful of oil of turpentine, mixed with the same quantity of
sweet oil, after the bird has been without food for twelve
hours. This should be repeated in two or three days. The
bird should be placed in a small pen and the floor frequently
disinfected to kill any worms which may be forwarded.

CHICKEN POX.

A Disease that is Spreading Rapidly—The Causes, Symptoms
and Remedy.

By Dr. N. W. Sanborn.

I can look back a few years and see ‘no cases of this
disease in-many a state. Until five years back it was almost
unknown north of Virginia and Kentucky. Lately it has
made its appearance in all states and has passed the line into
Canada. Chicken pox has been the dreaded disease in Cuba
and nearly half of the chicks hatched die of this ailment.
Under the name of “sore head” it has been the dread of
poultrymen in the southern states. Much has been written
of cholera, which by the way is usually indigestion, but
chicken pox is proving to be such an injury to hens and
chicks that it will soon be a favorite title to “Answers to
Questions” departments.

Chicken pox is a serious disease. You may have had
an outbreak in pleasant weather and lost few or no birds.
’ If so, you know little of the workings of the disease in cold
and wet weather. An August attack may not impress you
with its severity, but let the disease break out in the rainy
days of late October and you will look on with dismay at
its rapid progress in your flock. Take warning from these
statements and keep. this disease from getting any foothold
on your plant.

Chicken pox comes from a previous case. Without
special germs you will not see this ailment. If the disease
appears in your flock it will be because the trouble has been
introduced from some other case. A new bird, a hen expos-:
ed at some county fair, a second hand brooder, may intro-
duce you to this disease.

CHICKEN POX 41

The First Symptoms.

The first symptom is the little dark scabs on the comb
and wattles. Some cases present nothing in addition. These
may look like the dried blood that settles after the picking
by another bird. I know a poultryman who received a
dozen old hens in a single coop. He noticed one bird with
a “blood spot” on its comb and thought nothing spec.al. In
two days that bird had a hundred scabs, eyes closed, canker
in mouth. Ten days later seven of the other hens broke out
with the disease. It spread to other pens, twelve hens were
killed, eggs-for-hatching business spoiled for the season,
and three hundred dollars knocked out of his profits of the
year. The dead birds were buried in four feet of soil; two
years later his hired man dug into this spot to get earth for
filling his hen house, leading to another outbreak of the
disease.

Chicken pox takes about eleven days to cover the time
between exposure and the appearance of the first symptoms.
The bird is feverish with the coming of the pox marks,
slightly red in comb and wattles, appetite varying according
to the severity of the individual case. If the days are wet
and cold the cases are likely to show severe canker in mouth
and throat, closed eyes and swelled head.

A Simple Remedy.

The simple treatment is to add just a film of kerosene
oil to every drinking dish. Every time the birds drink they
get a small dose of the medicine. Added to this is the giv-
ing of calcium sulphide. This is a bad smelling powder,
yellow in color, and costs about fifty cents for four ounces.
Add one heaping teaspoonful to the wet mash for twenty-
five hens and feed it all. Do this every morning for ten
days, or until every symptom has disappeared from the
flock of sick birds. I advise that the film of oil be added
to every drinking dish on the place as a stop to spreading
of the disease.

42 SIMPLE. POULTRY REMEDIES

Extreme care is needed to prevent the passing of the
trouble to other pens. A few of the dried scabs in a run,
or pen, with a little moisture added, is all that is needed
to pass on the disease, or start a new outbreak another
year. Clean out, clean up and keep clean. Take out the old
soil—\. heel in new. Take the infected earth beyond the
reach of ranging hens and chicks. Strive to prevent the
first appearance of chicken pox. If it comes, you have
trouble enough to keep you busy.

GAPE WORMS.

Where They Come From—How Maintained and Spread—and
How Prevented.

By Dr. N. W. Sanborn.

Along about the middle of May I begin to be asked
~what to do for gapes. These inquiries keep up until the
middle of August, when they stop for nine months. The
time to study this disease is before it appears. It is so
preventable that no poultryman needs despair of getting rid
of it. .

Gapes is a disease afflicting young chicks. It seldom
is seen in very small chicks or in mature birds. It appears
a week or two after the chickens begin to range out in
search of seed and bug. The prominent symptom is the
“gapping” that gives the name to the trouble. The chick
raises his head, opens his mouth widely, and yawns as
though he was both, short of wind and full in throat. The
chick loses flesh, his feathers become ruffled, and quite
often there is a diarrhoea.

- Catching one of these sick chicks, you kill it. With a
thin bladed kn’fe, sharp, you cut open the skin along the
windpipe. Then split open the windpipe itself, and look

GAPE WORMS 43

for the gape worms. These are fine, hair-like, half-an-inch-
long worms, attached to the lining of the windpipe. Usual-
ly you will see two worms, close together, attached to a
single point of membrane. The worms mate in two’s, live
on blood they suck from the chick, and irritate the growing
bird. The gape worms, if present in numbers, weaken the
chick from the blood loss, as well as disturb the nervous
system from local irritation.

The Usual Treatment.

The usual treatment of gapes has been the trying to
get the worms up out of the windpipe. A horsehair is
twisted into loops and inserted in the end of a smooth
wire. This is introduced into the throat and windpipe of
the chick and efforts made to entangle the worms in it. It
is withdrawn and worms shaken off, and then returned for
more. This all looks simple but it is not without its
dangers. [requently the worms are dislodged—only to fall
into the bronchial tubes. Another line of cure has been the
inhaling of irritating dust. The chicks are put into a bur-
lap-covered box and airslaked lime dusted into the box.
This starts coughing and sometimes the worms are coughed
out. The dust irritates the tubes and lungs and may do
more harm than good.

Gapes and Earth Worms.

The study of gapes leads me to believe that the com-
mon earth worm plays a part in the trouble. Given a case
of gapes and the soil, as well as the earth worm, becomes
infected. The chicks seek the worms, eat them, and in turn
become the host of the gape worm. Many poultrymen
write me that they feed earth worms to their chicks and
never have gapes. So do I, and I have never had a case
of gapes on my place. Let me buy a few chicks with gapes,
give them the run of my yards, and I could then feed worms
at great risk. You must have both the gape worm and the
earth worm in order to get this disease into your plant.

44 SIMPLE, POULTRY “REMEDIES

Soil infested with gapes should be abandoned for
two years, and cultivated to growing crops. New ground
should be used for growing chicks and the old yards well
fenced against the chicks. Better give up the keeping of
chicks for two years rather than lose two-thirds of your
chicks by gapes. Possibly the holding over the laying stock
two seasons—hatching no chicks—would clear up the danger
from this disease. !

Having some idea of the cause of gapes, knowing the
general line of prevention, I think it is up to every pro-
gressive poultryman to stamp it out. .There is no satisfac-
tion in treating chicks with gapes. You may pull part of
the flock through, but it will be after wasted time and a
few ‘bad words.” Get to studying the cause and prevention
of the diseases of the chicken yard and take pleasure in own-
ing healthy hens and chicks.

RHEUMATISM.

Rheumatism in fowls is usually apparent by weakness
of the legs. The fowls walk with halting, jerky steps, in
many cases lifting their feet high in front like a horse with
string halt. As the disease progresses the victims often hob-
ble on their hock joints and their feet draw up and become
apparently useless. Their appetites usually remain good.

It is caused sometimes by overfeeding with meat and
insufficient green food and sometimes by damp quarters. If
the ration contains a great deal of meat the amount should
be decreased and the amount of green food increased. The
quarters should be made dry and well-ventilated. For the
whole flock add three grains of salicylic acid to each quart ot
water. For individual treatment, place the bird in a warm,
‘dry coop, thickly bedded with straw or leaves. Give plenty
of milk and grain but no meat. A ‘tablet containing one-
quarter to one-fifth of a grain of salicylic acid may be given
morning and night.-

LIMBERNECK.

A Disease Caused By Ptomaine Poisoning —Where the Poison
Comes From—How to Effect a Cure.

By Dr. N. W. Sanborn.

There have been reported to me the past year more
than the usual number of cases of limberneck. Either
poultryvmen are getting more interested in diseases of thei
birds or else the cases of this kind are more frequent.
Limberneck is named from a single, prominent, symptom—
the weak condition of the muscles of the neck. The hen,
or half-grown chick, is noticed to be unsteady on its legs
with head low down. When resting on the floor the head
is lowered until its weight is all on the ground.

Limberneck is caused by ptomaine poisoning. This
poison is formed within the body of the bird, usually from
meat that has been eaten from some dead animal or bird.
Generally the flesh is badly decayed when taken, as shown
by the presence of maggots in and around the dead carcass.
The maggots are not the cause of limberneck. You may
feed them freely and get no harmful results. I have seen
cases of limberneck that came from feeding spoiled green
cut-bone in warm weather. Occasionally I have met cases
that seemed to come from meat that was perfectly fresh
when given—but that soon rotted in the bowels of the: fowl.

The common sources of spoiled meat are the dead fowl
under the out-building, the dead calf over the pasture wall,
or the woodchuck thrown into the neighboring thicket.
Long kept cut-bone and fermenting mash that is rich in
animal material, are other sources that need inquiring into.
Meatscraps, or meatmeal, that has heated and formed lumps
produces diarrhoea, but is not retained in the bowels long”

46 SIMPLE POULTRY REMEDIES

enough to allow absorption and poisoning, as is the case
with decaying flesh. It takes very little “yeast’’ in the in-
testines to change normal digestion of meat into decay. It
is the product thrown off by the bacteria that is absorbed
and poisons the nerve centers.

A Successful Treatment.

The treatment is indicated by -the cause. At once
~ sweep out the spoiling contents of bowels; get rid of the
decaying substance that is causing mischief; stop the
supply of irritation and then turn your mind _ to
clearing out that which has already been absorbed. Epsom
salts or castor oil work well with hens and chicks. A five
pound pullet will need a half-teaspoonful of Epsom salts
in six of water, feeding it to her until it has all gone into
her crop. Castor otl is used more often, is nearly as good
in its results, and should be given in teaspoonful doses,
every three hours, until the bowel discharge is full and free.
One thorough cleaning out of the intestines is sufficient.
Then add five grains sulpho-carbolate of zinc to four ouncés
cold water and set before the ailing bird for common drink-
ing. Use the zinc salt. mentioned for three days. Where
several birds are diseased they can be put into the same small
pen and treated in common.

When you have a plain case of limberneck be on the
watch for the very beginning of it in other fowls. On the
first suspicion of trouble in a new case, clear out the con‘
tents of the bowels with either the oil or salts. You will
save time, labor and birds if you follow this suggestion.

Get out of the habit of leaving dead birds under the
roost, in the yards, on the nest, waiting for the convenient
moment that is long in coming.

CROP-BOUND.

The Cause of This Troublesome Ailment and The Remedy—.
How the Crop is Opened.

By Dr. N. W. Sanborn.

Crop-bound hens are not unusual in the springtime and
crop-bound chicks are not rare. We all know the looks of
a crop-bound bird. The breast is bulging out, the bird
unbalanced, the hen or chick awkward in its every motion.
The bird is often at the feed dish but eats little, makes
many trips to the water fountain but drinks little. The
common cause of the filling of the crop is the obstruction of
the outlet by long pieces of hay or straw. I have had more
cases in fowls in the month of March when they were first
let out on the range after being shut in all winter than at
any other time. They seem to hunger for the long, dead
grass, and eat it to excess.

I do not get so many cases now as before I adopted
the use of lots of cut clover for food, as well as deep litter
in the laying pens for exercise. The shut-in, small flock of
the village yard is most in danger from crop-bound. This
home bunch of birds gets, in most instances, plenty of grain
and meat, but little in the line of “filler.” The hen, to
maintain health, needs something for filling, as well as does
the cow. The laying hen should be supplied cut hay or
clover, or grass range in warm weather, in addition to the
best ration that you can find.

Successful Treatment.

Having a hen with the full crop what shall we do
about it? The “first aid” in such cases is to put half a
teaspoonful of cooking soda into a cup of water and feed
all you can to the hen. Then holding her head downwards

48 SIMPLE-POULTRY REMEDIES

you work gently the contents of the crop and try to get
it into the mouth. If the contents of the crop is soft and
the grass not long you may succeed in either starting the
material onwards or in emptying it out of the mouth. _Fail-
ing to succeed vou must then either kill and eat the hen,
or proceed to open and take out what is filling the crop.
The crop-bound hen should not be in bad condition — to
make a “‘pot-pie”’ if you notice her condition early, as the
watchful poultryman does.

Opening the Crop.

To-ppen the crop successfully calls for clean hands and
careful work. The feathers are first picked clean from a
spot as large as a half dollar, right over the center of the
swollen crop. With a sharp knife you cut through the skin
only, making a cut an inch long. Spread this line of cut
till it is almost oval in shape. Then pulling the skin slightly
sidewise, so the cut through the crop is not just under the
first line you made through the skin, run the knife into the
crop until the opening is about three quarters of an inch
long.

With toothpicks, pieces of wood, a small spoon, take
time to pull out the contents of the crop. When this is
done run your finger into the crop and see whether something
is left filling the outlet. There may be a piece of wood or
bone filling the outlet. If so, remove it. Fill the crop with
water and then empty. The line of cut in the crop will
need three or four stitches to close and that in the skin as
many more. Make the sewing in two lots. You want the
line of the crop cut to heal out of the direct line of that
in the skin. Make -each-stitch by itself. Put the needle
through, and tie and cut the white silk that you use for this
purpose.

When through with the operation coop the bird where -
it has not access to long grass or straw for a week. Feed
a balanced wet mash for a few days and then return the
bird to her old pen. If you will go about the matter of

INDIGESTION 49

curing these cases with simple and careful methods you
should seldom lose a bird from the operation. On the other
hand I doubt the judgment of a man who will go through
all this on a hen that is worth a single half-dollar. The
valuable breeder, and the fine show hen or cock, is entitled
to our time and patience in anything we may think best
to do.

Some of the old cases of enlarged crop can be improved
in looks by cutting out some of the skin and crop and sew-
ing up as outlined. The cut is made longer than for crop-
bound but the same plan followed, and with scissors you
remove sufficient skin and crop to make an opening like
that made by spreading the cut as described before. Then
sew closely and let the fowl run with the flock after per-
haps a week of seclusion.

INDIGESTION.

Imperfect Digestion Opens the Way for Many Diseases—Some
of the Principal Causes of Indigestion and How
They May be Avoided.

The digestive apparatus of the fowl must be kept in
good working order or the entire system from the heart
to the minutest blood vessel suffers. Imperfect digestion
of food means a dibilitated body and an impoverished blood.
Some of the principal causes of impaired digestion, which
means a weakened digestive system, are overfeeding, lack
of exercise and unvaried or poorly balanced rations.

Overfeeding overtaxes the organs, which strive beyond
their strength to take care of the immense amount of food
forced upon them. In doing this they become weakened
and in time not able to preform their duties properly, even
though the amount of food is reduced to the proper point.

50 SIMPLE POULTRY REMEDIES

Lack of exercise in fowls, as in man, causes digestive
trouble. The body requires exercise in order to properly
assimilate the food taken into the crop and the fowl that
spends most of its time idling, lays on a quantity of fat
and appears bright and healthy, with a red comb and face,
but is nevertheless getting its digestion out of order and
presently will be attacked by some disease or perhaps drop
dead from fatty degeneration of the heart.

The poorly balanced ration, or the unvaried diet, prob-
ably causes more trouble than the other two mistakes.
Many- flocks are fed largely on one, or at the most two or
three, varieties of grain. On many farms corn or wheat
are most readily obtained and on those grains, and perhaps
only one of them, the farm flock is made to subsist. If it
happens that the flock has the range of the barns and barn--
yards in winter and the freedom of the farm in summer,
the fowls can sometimes find sufficient other food to partly
balance the ration and in that way ward off severe trouble.
In any event, it should be remembered that the system of a
fowl requires a certain amount of many different food ele-
ments and that these food elements do not exist in sufficient
quantity in any one kind of food. Corn, for example, con-
tains much fattening and heating material but very little in
the way of flesh, muscle, bone and blood-making elements.
Therefore, if the ration is principally corn, the digestive
system has to work overtime trying to digest a sufficient
quantity to obtain a fair amount of the elements in which
‘corn is very weak. The same is true of all other single
grains, only with different grains the amount of each ele-
ment varies.

Lack of sufficient animal food which is rich in protein
compels the digestive apparatus to handle an extra amount
of other food in which protein is weak in order to supply
the system.

The cure for indigestion 1s a removal a the causes
and the correction of the methods of feeding, etc. Vigor-

DISEASES OF THE LIVER 51

ous fowls which have good air to breathe, a reasonable
amount of exercise and a sufficient quantity of properly bal-
anced food, are never troubled with indigestion nor any of
the various diseases which follow it.

DISEASES OF THE LIVER.

Causes, Symptoms And Means to Prevent a Frequent And
Troublesome ,Ailment of Fowls.

By Dr. N. W. Sanborn.

The liver is a much abused organ. No part of the
fowl will stand such treatment and yet pull itself out of
difficult places. The common diseases of the liver are con-
nected with digestive disorders. Seldom is the liver upset
except in cases where the whole digestive tract is involved.

The Fatty or Enlarged Liver.

An enlarged liver is largely added fat. This increases
size and weight, disturbs the circulation of. blood and pre-
vents the formation and passage of bile. Other functions
of the liver are disturbed but those mentioned are the ones
that most concern poultrymen.

Fatty or enlarged liver comes as the result of too
much food, or too little exercise. Just so long as corn and
cornmeal is the one prominent ingredient of the day’s
ration we shall have many cases of liver trouble. The flock
that gets a breakfast of cornmeal, with dinner and supper
of whole corn, is likely to show some cases of liver disease _
before the end of the breeding season. Too many farmers,
with full corn cribs, make corn the staple feed of their hens
and chicks. The hens that are made to exercise for hours
in getting the feeds of corn are less likely to develop liver
ailments. The man who carries the feed pail can so handle
the exercise problem as to diminish the danger from large

52 SIMPLE’ POULTRY> REMEDIES

amounts of corn. I have seen many flocks on the farms,
closely housed in winter, with no litter, fed heavily on corn
and cornmeal with some bran, that did not produce eggs
_enough to pay their bran bill, that supplied many cases of
liver disease before five months had passed.

With the fatty liver comes the baggy condition of the
abdomen. This can be seen in some cases—felt in all.
Many poultrymen do not realize the ailment until the latter
symptoms, such as loss of weight and chronic diarrohea,
appear. “These are the final steps in the movement of the
disease of the liver.

What is true of the feeding oe hens in winter is true
of fattening cockerels. [f you run the time of fattening
too long you will get enlarged and diseased liver. It is
necessary to feed corn products to round out the rooster
but it must be done quickly. Just before the time when
digestion fails and the liver begins to cease its work the
cockerels should be killed and marketed.

Purple Comb a Symptom.

The one prominent symptom of liver disease is a con-
stantly purple comb. The comb that gets purple, or nearly
black, on violent running of the fowl is usually due to heart
weakness. These cases will show normal color of comb
most of the time. In jiver disease the comb remains dark
all the time. The purple may show only in the back of the
comb or it may cover the whole surface.

Why does corn injure the liver? The simple story is
this: fowls need certain different elements to nourish them.
Corn is not a complete food. It is too rich in fat-building
matter. If fowls cannot get what they need in variety—and
corn is abundant—too much is eaten in the endeavor to
get the other elements required. The unneeded part of the
corn is deposited in various parts of the body and the liver
is. the most often to be used. Hampered, upset, out-of-con-
dition, the liver stops its work, little by little, and you have
a bird that is sluggish, thin and worthless.

THE EGG PASSAGE 53

A case of liver disease that has reached the diarrhoea
stage is hopeless to treat. The early dietetic handling of
the case with baggy abdomen is hopeful. The prevention
of all liver diseases by proper care and feeding of the flock
is possible to you who will handle your stock along well-
known lines of feeding. The balance ration has sometimes
been made fun of but it is the proper method of feeding.

THE EGG PASSAGE.

Causes of Retained Eggs and the Proper Treatment.

By Dr. N. W. Sanborn.

Diseases of the “88 Passage are not infrequent. They
are prone to appear in young pullets that are nearing the
end of their first year, and in hens that are about two and
three years of age. Sometimes a pullet will exclude her
first and second egg and then fail with the third. Much
depends on the size of the eggs of the first litter. If they
increase in size gradually there is little danger of trouble,
but let an extra large egg come along and it may fail in
being passed. And it may become lodged in the passage,
irritating it and the pullet, and then become a source of dan-
ger. It may rupture the egg duct, may get broken through
the attentions of the male, or in time make its Way out.

Eggs may fail to Pass because of an over-fat condition
of the hens. The unnatural condition works two ways.
The deposits of fat around the egg organs hinder the pass-
age of the egg, and the fine deposits of fat in the small
muscles of the organ weaken the wall of the duct and lessen
the strength of the propelling parts.

Too Much Fat is Dangerous.

Some poultrymen tell us that they want their hens fat,
that the fat hen is the business hen, and a bird has to have fat

54 SIMPLE POULTRY REMEDIES
deposits before it can do its best. While there is a grain
of truth in this, it is far from being safe to follow. The
hen that has these heavy layers of fat has been badly fed,
is laboring with a clogged liver, and often breaks down with
indigestion and diarrhoea in the late winter months. She
has been pushed so hard that she gives out when you need
her eggs for breeding.

A line of feeding that presents a ration so balanced
as to provide for the bodily needs seldom makes all the
hens of the flock too fat. Now and then a single hen
out of the flock will become over-fat on the ration that is
right for the other birds. You cannot supply a ration that
will fill the needs of every hen in a large flock, but you
certainly can so feed as to keep the most of the pen in
a good condition that is favorable to health.

The hen or pullet with a retained egg shows her condi-
tion by making many trips to the nest, remaining on it
for hours, and trying to pass the egg. You will quickly
catch on to the trouble if you watch your birds with any
Cares. lbathe Eom is broken there will be a discharge with
every attempt to strain. When an egg has broken through
into the abdominal cavity the hen will show it by her half
lifeless state. She has a diarrhoea, no appetite, is warmer
than normal, and later on will show signs of pain.

Treatment For Retained Eggs.

The retained egg can sometimes be helped out by a

simple oiling of Pe passage with castor oil. If it is ab-
normally large in size it should be broken and removed in
a crushed condition. Then the next egg may come all
right. ;
When an egg ‘has broken through the passage the hen
generally dies in a few days. There is nothing that you can
do for this trouble unless you promptly kill and eat the hen
before she gets feverish.

Vent gleet quite often extends into the egg passage.
This gives a dry state to the passage, tender and hot, and

’ BREAK DOWN 55

pain prevents the hen using much strength to pass her
eggs. Gleet should always receive proper treatment lest
it get into the egg organs. Sulpho-napthol can be added to
water until the mixture is milky, and then a bunch of cotton
wet in this should be inserted into the end of the bowels.
Get rid of all catarrhal troubles of the vent as quickly as
treatment will do it.

The egg passage, as well as the ovaries higher up, are
sometimes irritated by too high spicing of the winter
food. While this method of getting winter eggs may succeed
for a few weeks, it is not safe to use. Condiments should
not be used any stronger than you would in your food on
the home table. To go beyond this is to take chances of
stirring up trouble in the egg producing organs.

BREAK DOWN.

A Common Trouble in Fowls at this Season—The Causes
and How to Prevent—No Cure.

By Dr. N. W. Sanborn.

In the late winter months, and through April and
- May, you will have cases of so-called “break-down.” The
hens will appear droopy, dull in color of comb and wattles,
and will stop laying. There are two classes of hens that
are likely to get in this condition. First those that have
been great eaters, regular gluttons, that have been over-fat
for months. Second, those that have been pushed for eggs
by the use of stimulating spices and drugs and that have
gone to pieces because they had reached the limit of en-
durance.

In our rush for egg records and winter egg profits we
may have been thoughtless of the future work and health of
our hens and pullets. If we divided our winter egg layers
from future breeders and handled and fed the two lots ac-
cording to their needs, the loss of a few record layers will be

50 SIMPLE POUEDRY (REMEDIES

more than offset by the creamy prices of midwinter. In a
business flock, fed for winter eggs, you may expect a few
cases of breakdown. You must feed a ration right for the
average hen in the flock. While most of them will keep in
good health there will be a few that become thin and some
that will fat up, have liver disease and die in the late winter.
It is when we get ten per cent or more of these cases that
we begin to ask causes and demand prevention. The man
who is having many cases of the disease I am considering
must get on to a better ration and supply conditions that
make for better health.

Proper Care is Prevention.

The prevention of break-down is the story of how to
feed and care for hens and chicks. It is giving a well-balanc-
ed ration, not forgetting vegetable and animal food, and
seeing that sunshine gets a chance at every part of the
floor of the hen house. It means that mould is not let form
on the. litter of the floor-and’ that” air is let into the
houses so constantly that the hens need never re-breathe
the air they need for life and health. Too many poultry-
men feed a ration that is lacking in animal food, causing
the stock to overeat in their craving for protein. Better
a moderate amount of a balanced ration than the larger
weight of the wide ration that is the usual one of the farm.

There is danger in feeding large quantities of spice
or condiments. To overdo the matter is to stimulate the
digestive, as well as the reproductive, organs, and cut short
the egg work as well as in many cases the life of the hen.
She will lay extra well for a while and then, when the
mischief is done, become stolid, sluggish and present the
symptoms of the condition I am warning you against.

Separate Hens and Pullets.
Knowing the causes we can plan better for next win-
ter’s work with our hens and pullets. We can pen hens
and pullets in different yards so as to better feed them
according to age, The young stock will stand corn products

sCGOERNGSLIGH Th Gy

better than the old hens. They will respond to stimulation
with more safety than yearling hens. The older the layer
the more it needs exercise. Then hens that are laying can
be fed higher than those that are resting. I suppose there
may be a single good ration that will suit all conditions but I
have never found it. i

No Practical Remedy.

What can be done for the cases of “break-down” now
on hand? Very little. You may get them back to laying for
awhile but they soon get off condition and are a lot oi
trouble until dead and buried. I can only suggest more
green food such as lettuce and cabbage, mangles and tur-
nips, cut clover and hay. Each case should scratch for its
whole grain. No scratch, no food. The hopper method is
bad for these half sick hens. Take out a window in each pen
and cover with wire netting, letting air and sunshine in free-
ly. One teaspoonful Epsom salts and twenty grains sulpho-
carbolate of zinc to every quart of drinking water will be
dose,enough and do something to help the hens out of the
torpid condition: Never use eggs for hatching from any one
of these cases of break-down.

‘GOING LIGHT.”

Now and then a poultry keeper reports that certain of
his fowls lose weight rapidly and finally waste away and
die. This is what is called “going light” and is said to be
caused by a certain germ for which no positive remedy has
been discovered.

The best treatment that can be given is plenty of whole-
some food, and free range in the summer time or plenty of
green food and sufficient exercisé in winter. A few drops
of tincture of chloride of iron in the drinking water is recom-
mended. This does not refer, of course, to cases when
the bird becomes thin from other diseases, like digestive
troubles, in which case the disease may be cured and the bird
will take on flesh again.

‘ COMMON BOWEL TROUBLE.

Most Cases of This Trouble are Due to Simple Causes Which
May Easily be Removed—Some of the Cures
and Preventives.

As a rule bowel trouble is traceable to careless feeding,
improper sanitation, moldy food or litter, access to decayed
vegetables or decayed meat. A badly balanced ration causes
trouble by overtaxing the digestive organs and heavy feed-
ing has the same effect. Poor sanitation, which permits
dirty, filthy quarters, improper drainage, insufficient ventil-
ation, etc., are often responsible for the trouble. Feeding
spoiled or moldy grains, or the use of moldy scratching ma-
terial or the accumulation of mold through dampness in the
poultry house is likely to affect these organs through the
spores developed by the mold and further developed in the
system of the fowl. The feeding of too much beef scrap or
meat meal, which is simply the overloading of the system
with protein, causes the same result. If the fowls are fed or
have access to decayed fruit, vegetables, or meat or bone,
the digestive organs are affected and bowel trouble is the
most prominent symptom. 3

These causes show how easy it is to create trouble of
this kind and at the same time prove that it is possible to
prevent similar trouble. Occasionally severe cases are mis-
taken for cholera and treated with the harsh remedies that
are prescribed in some cases for that more serious disease.
In such instances the trouble is often increased rather than
cured. On that account, it is well to try simple remedies
at first and to resort to harsh ones only after the simple ones
have failed to prove effective.

COMMON BOWEL TROUBLE 59

Some Simple Remedies.

Often times bowel trouble can be cured by withholding
all food for a couple of days and then feeding very lightly
for a week. This enables the digestive apparatus to clear
itself of the poisonous matter that may have been deposited
there and to secure a needed rest. At all times it ts wise
to disinfect thoroughly the feed and drink dishes, the roost
and roost platforms and the floor of the poultry house. This
will kill the germs of disease and prevent spread of the
trouble by means of the germs. In cases where the trouble
has got considerable start, one dose of Epsom salts in pro-
portion of a heaping tablespoonful in a pint of water put
before the flock after it has been without. water for twelve
hours and kept there until the flock has consumed consider-
able of it, will assist in ridding the system of any poison that
may have accumulated. Sometimes withholding water and
giving scalded milk with grated nutmeg will effect a cure and
if that does not prove effective, boiled white flour may be
added until it is of the consistency of thick cream. In cer-
tain cases which do not yield to the simpler treatments, give
each fowl morning and night a tablet of mercury bichloride,
I-1000 of a grain drug strength,

One of the best preventives is common wood charcoal
which is sold by poultry supply dealers or which may be
sifted from the ashes when the poultry keeper burns wood.
If this is before the fowls at all times much loss from bowel
trouble and the diseases that follow it will be avoided and
the fowls will be in better health and more productive.

Bowel Trouble in Chicks.

Many correspondents speak of losing many chicks from
bowel trouble. The bowels become loose, the vent clogged,
and the chicks grow smaller instead of larger, and eventual-
ly die. We have experienced just such trouble, but have
learned how best to control or obviate difficulties. Chicks
in a brooder that are not kept warm enough, and busy
enough, are subjects to this looseness or weakness of the

60 SIMPLE POULTRY REMEDIES

bowels. Chicks that are crowded in the brooder are often
affected in the same way. Chicks running with a hen, and’
the hen having too many to cover comfortably, are similarly
affected. Young chicks must be kept warm and dry, and
must be allowed scratching ground where they can exercise
and busy themselves. Too little exercise is a fruitful source
of trouble.

Chicks fed upon dry feed in sufficient variety, given
plenty of grit and a place to scratch in, or a yard to run
in at pleasure, will be invariably strong and happy. Ex-
ercise is one of the essentials. Chicks running at large
with-a hen have exercise, while brooder chicks have not,
unless the scratch yard is prepared for them. If the weath-
er be chilly, the chicks will run from the brooder to yard,
and back again to their warm home when tired and chilly,
just as they cuddle under a hen in like circumstances. When
the weather is warm the day through, they will seldom go
near the brooder from early morning until nearly night.
They love to scratch and run and they must be given every
opportunity to do so. Bowel trouble will not be found
among them.

Doctoring little chicks for this trouble is not satisfac-
tory and the only safe way is to prevent it. Frequently
disinfection of brooder or coops is necessary.

GASTRITIS. .

Gastritis is the name given to the swelling of the food
passage near the gizzard. It is seldom met with except in
connection with crop troubles and is brought about by the
same causes, including overfeeding and the use of too much
spice or the eating of something poisonous.

The symptoms are lack of appetite, bowel trouble, some
fever and a general inactivity. The proper treatment.is to
remove the irritation. If the drinking water is boiled with
alittle rice in it, it will allay the irritation.

FOWL CHOLERA.

Causes, Symptoms and Treatment of the Most Dreadful
Disease of Poultry. .

By Dr. O. H. Olson.

This disease is very common and all varieties of do-
mestic poultry are subject to it. It is characterized by a
persistent diarrhoea, rapid emaciation and great prostra-
tion. It is a disease justly dreaded by all poultry raisers
owing to its dangerous character. It is of a highly con-
tagious nature and spreads rapidly in a flock of fowls, often
destroying a large number in a few days. In other cases
the disease assumes a more chronic form prevailing several
weeks or months,

In order to prevent this destructive disease from making
its appearance among our poultry, it becomes necessary to use
the strictest sanitary precautions, bearing in mind that it is
a highly contagious disease caused by germs, which in some
manner may be brought upon the premises from some other
place where the disease exists. Tt may be brought by pur-
chased birds, by eggs or by other animals. It is necessary
to be constantly on guard against the introduction of con-
tagion. All purchased birds should be isolated and quaran-
tined for several weeks before they are allowed to mingle
in the flock. In hatching eggs from other yards, keep the
chicks separate and watch them for a time to make sure
that they are healthy. Dogs and other animals carry con-
tagion and should be kept out of the poultry yard. Birds
exhibited at shows should be quarantined for a period of
ten days after their return.

Cause of Cholera.
The disease is caused by bacteria and is usually brought
on by taking food and drink that is contaminated by the

62 SIMPLE POULTRY REMEDIES

excrements of sick birds. The infection may occur through ~
worms, abrasions of the skin or by the inhalation of germs.
It may also be caused by the birds eating particles of flesh
and blood from the carcasses of affected birds that have died
from the disease. It is often introduced with new birds that
are purchased for improving the stock or with eggs for
hatching.
Symptoms of the Disease.

The symptoms are high fever, great thirst, great weak-
ness and prostration. The digestion is arrested, the crop
remains full, the bird drinks but refuses food and appears
to be in distress. The comb of the affected bird, becomes
purple in color. he discharge, called the urates, which in
health usually is white in color, becomes yellowish, deep yel-
low, or in the final stages a greenish yellow or deep
green. As the disease progresses the diarrhoea becomes
severe, although it is a very prominent symptom through-
out the whole course. The bird separates itself from the
rest of the flock, the feathers are roughened, the wings
droop, the head is drawn toward the body giving the bird _
a rounded appearance, the bird grows extremely weak and
drowsiness sets in, or a stupor from which it may be dif-
ficult to arouse it.

The Proper Treatment.

In the first stages give tincture capsicum, tincture
opium and tincture camphor, each two drachms; tincture
ipecac and spirits chloroform, each one drachm. Méx and
give to each mature bird five drops three times a day; or,
a little copperas, alum and resin may be given, mixed to-
gether. Put one drachm of carbolic acid in one pint of
water and give one-half a teaspoonful several times dailv.
Isolate all sick -birds immediately and keep them in com-
fortable quarters. Everything about the poultry house
should be disinfected by spraying with a solution of carbolic
acid, one pound of carbolic acid to ten quarts of hot water.
Remove and disinfect the droppings every day. Fumigate

INTESTINAL WORMS 63

thoroughly and whitewash the inside of the poultry house
adding some crude carbolic acid to the whitewash, one pound
to each pail of whitewash. Everything about the poultry
quarters must be kept as clean and sanitary as possible.

INTESTINAL WORMS.

Round Worms and Tape Worms-——How They are Transferred —
Remedies and Preventives.

By Dr. N. W. Sanborn.

Chicks and hens, of all ages, are more or less troubled
with worms. They may be so few in numbers as to make
no impression on the birds, or large collections of worms
may cause decided losses of birds or profits. There are
flocks that, from year to year, seem to escape from worms
of any sort and I know poultry yards where you cannot dress
a chick or fowl without finding the bowel discharge loaded
with thread-like worms.

The care given to keeping yards and houses clean de-
termines partly whether worms will increase or not. Filthy
premises are good breeding grounds for worms. Unremoy-
ed droppings from the roosts, or floor litter that is damp
and dirty, help spread the crop of worms that we are con-
sidering in this article.

Gapes and gape-worms I fully covered in a previous
article, and this time I desire to tell you of the worms
that are found in the intestines of our hens and chicks.
Seldom is any attention paid to worms until a bird dies or
is dressed for market. Few poultrymen study the con-
tents of the bowel discharge in the illness of their stock.
I am confident that we have had whole flocks of well-brec
hens and pullets that were far below what they should

64 SIMPLE POULTRY REMEDIES

be from the irritation and drain that comes with the presence
of large numbers of worms, or from a few tape worms.

Round Worms.

These are found in most hens and in some chicks. They
live in the semi-liquid matter that fills the bowels. They
seldom get into the lower end of the intestines, but pass
their life in the small sized bowel that extends from gizzard
to rectum. It is onlv when there is a diarrhoea from any
cause that we see many worms expelled with the bowel con-
tents. The round worm is commonly not large or long. It
is wire shape, from a third of an inch to three inches long.
with a pencil pointed head and ‘a blunt pointed tail. The tail
end is much the shape of the finger end.

Hens with chicks are likely to infect their flocks with
worms. While you will see no worms in the droppings of
the hen as she leads her little ones there are enough passed
to get mixed with the food that the chickens eat. When
a hen or chick gets its start with the round worm it seldom
frees itself of them. If they increase in any considerable
numbers the birds have the appearance of indigestion. There
is light comb, sluggish activity, few eggs, and in bad cases
a slight diarrhoea. The best treatment to follow is that
which will throw out the full supply of worms. A watery
diarrhoea, induced in any manner, will do the business.
One-half teaspoonful Epsom salts, dissolved in a tablespoon-
ful or two of warm water, and poured down the throat,
will work well in an hour. Or, you may add a tablespoon-
ful of the salts to a quart of water and let it be the only
drink for the day. Clean up all droppings, following the
use of a laxative, as you wish to keep the hens from eating
again the very worms that have troubled them.

The Tape Worm.
This worm is not common, as is the round worm, but

is seen often enough to make it worth our while not to omit
it from this series of disease articles. The tape worm mani-

FITS 65

fests itself in few ways except in general thinness of the
bird. The appetite may be good, sometimes extraordinary,
and yet the hen is much less in weight than you expect. A
bird that is thin and pale, with splendid appetite and on the
cSnstant search for food, should have the bowel discharge
watched for the narrow, tape like, pieces that break off
from the worm. Having found this, or even suspecting
tape worm, try to expel the worm or worms. Nothing is
better for this than a single dose of male-fern. Six drops
of the oil of male fern is mixed with one teaspoonful castor
oil and given to the fowl in the early morning when its
crop is empty. No food is given the night before, or during
the day of treatment. Two hours after giving the male
fern, set before the bird a water dish containing one table-
spoonful Epsom salts to a pint of cold water and let this
be their only drink for the day. Take a look at the bird
several times during the day, watching out for the worm.
You will not mistake it for anything else. Burn all dis-
charges of the day as fast as you are able to get them.

—

FITS.

Fowls and chicks seldom have fits but occasionally one
will appear to become suddenly blind, twist the head back—
ward and to one side and sometimes turn completely over;
occasionally becoming apparently unconscious for a very
short time. They recover almost immediately and appear
to be as well as ever until the next attack, which may be »
very soon or not for-some time. Sometimes this is caused
by careless inbreeding of the stock or irritation of the in-
testines by worms, parasites, or indigestion from eating some
irritating substance. It is not advisable to breed from a bird
so affected. More careful feeding and the addition of a little
crushed garlic bulb to the food each day may effect a cure.
As a rule such birds had best be disposed of.

WHITE DIARRHOEA IN CHICKS.

—r

The Symptoms and Principal Causes of This Troublesome
Ailment—Means to Prevent.

By Dr. N. W. Sanborn. :

Spring is the season of the year when chick losses from
disease become common. Among .the various illnesses
that afflict chickens is that known to poultrymen as “white
diarrhoea.’ Much has been written and told of this ailment
afid authorities do not seem to agree as to causes and
treatment. If the white discharge from the bowels was
considered as a single symptom in the sickness of the chick,
and not the disease, the matter would not present so many
different points-of-view.

The white discharge that has made so much talk, that
has caused many persons to go out of the chicken business,
is largely due to increased urinary secretion. If other func-
tions did better work, the kidneys would not be called on to

do extra labor.
Apparent Symptoms.

The first indication that the chick is ill is usually seen
with coming of the pasty discharge that causes the chick to
“paste up” behind. Then the chick is noticed to eat less and
less, is thirsty, and soon shows signs of general weakness.
It may crowd up near the source of heat in the brooder,
get into a corner of the house it lives in with the mother
hen, or stand in the sunny spot in the sunshine. The symp-
toms increase in severity, the chick presents every indication
of severe illness; and is likely to be found dead under the
hover of the brooder or under the feet of the brooding hen
when the coop is opened in the early morning. .

There are various causes for this serious illness. I
think the most common one is wrong feeding. Either the

WHATE DIARRHOEA IN CHICKS 67

chick is fed while yet too young, or the food given is rough
and hard to digest, or fermented or spoiled food is given
it to eat. Many cases of so-called white diarrhoea are
simply cases of indigestion.

Direct Causes.

The next cause, in importance, is chilling of the newly
hatched chick. This is seen in hen-hatched as well as in
incubator chicks. Whether the hen, who has been inactive
for three weeks, takes time to dust, or whether the chick
that has just come out of the egg, tumbles over the tray into
the cooler chamber below, makes no difference in results.
Let a damp chick stay in a cool place for half an hour and
the chilling that follows ends up in many cases of the
character we are considering.

Low vitality in the breeding stock is to blame for some
of the sick chicks of the class covered in this article. Chicks
that are lacking in sturdy qualities fail to resist food and
conditions that well-bred birds thrive on. A sturdy, well-
hatched chick starts in life with the battle nearly won.
Even the neglect of the hen, or the chill of the lower cham-
ber of the hatching machine, makes no impression on its
strength.

It takes a few days for the chill, wrong ration, or
spoiled food to influence the health of the chick. Several
days pass before you notice anything out of the usual. The
chilled chick of the machine usually lives from five to four-
teen days—yet the mischief was done in its first day.

How to Prevent.

Many cases of the form of bowel trouble that heads
this article can be avoided by knowing causes and handling
the chicks accordingly. In my own work with chicks, I
keep them on the tray of the machine until twenty-four
hours old. Then the tray is removed and the chicks have
the run of the bottom of the incubator. When two days
old, the chicks are removed to a well warmed brooder that
has plenty of space heated up to ninety-five degrees.. No

68 . SIMPLE POULTRY REMEDIES

food is given till the chicks are four days old, except what
they find in the warm waste that is used to cover the floor
of the brooder. At four days they are given cracked wheat,
at seven days some good meat scrap is put before them,
and at fourteen days cracked corn is added to the ration. |
omit all wet mashes and early feeding, and believe that
my plan has saved me thousands of chicks. While wet
mashes, bread and milk, and other foods of like character,
are good in many cases, there is too much risk to the average
owner of chicks. Study the causes that produce illness in
your flock and be ready to use your knowledge in the pre-
vention of a large per cent of the common diseases of hens
and chicks.

CANNIBALISM IN FOWLS AND CHICKS.

Many poultrymen have lost whole flocks of chicks and
had combs and wattles of mature fowls spoiled by cannibal
habits of the flock. The habit is particularly prevalent in
young chicks which eat ‘each others toes off, destroy parts
of their wings and often nearly, if not quite, disembowel
each other. :

As a rule this habit is taken up in winter or early spring
when the little fellows lack exercise and green food. Some-
times lack of sufficient meat in the ration forms the basis of
the habit. It is almost impossible to prevent the practice
once it gets a fair start. The best that can be done 1s to
separate the chicks in small flocks, say twenty in each flock,
and keep them busy hunting for fine grain in the litter. Also
furnish plenty of green food and if the weather is warm, get
them outdoors as much as possible. To satisfy the craving
for blood, hang up a piece of fresh beef flank where they can
pick at it during the day.

In the case of fowls which get the habit of picking’ at
each other’s combs and wattles, it is best to remove those
which are being attacked until the raw places heal.

INTESTINAL CATARRH AND _ TOXIC,
GASTRO ENTERITIS.

Two Diseases Which are Often Misunderstood—Their Symp-
toms and the Proper Treatment.

By O. H. Olson, M. D.

Gastro intestinal catarrh is a disease affecting the
whole intestinal tract and is due to an inflammation of the
lining membrane. It is a disease met with quite frequently
among fowls. It has a strong resemblance to cholera and
has often been mistaken for that disease, and the wrong
remedy applied.

It may be caused by feeding rations that are too stim-
ulating; the frequent use of pepper and ginger; overload-
ing the stomach; eating partially decomposed food and
food that has become sour and mouldy; exposure to drafts,
rains, damp houses; overcrowding and sudden changes of
temperature.

The symptoms are loss of appetite; great thirst and
elevation of temperature; roughness of plumage; disinclin-
ation to move and distention of the crop, which empties
itself very slowly owing to a partially paralyzed condition
of its folds. There is at the beginning a slight diarrhoea,
the droppings are soft and of a yellowish or greenish color
and adhere to the feathers. The diarrhoea increases until
it becomes very severe, and there may then be hemorrhages
from the intestines.

The causes of the disease should be ascertained and
removed. Place the bird in comfortable surroundings that
are free from drafts and dampness. Give to the bird only
the purest of water to drink and in small amounts at a

70 SIMPLE POULTRY REMEDIES

time. Give easily digested food, such as boiled rice, a little
stale bread moistened with milk and a little oatmeal
that is boiled. Give three or four grains of sub-
nitrate of bismuth and one grain of dover powder and one
grain of bicarbonate of soda three times a day. If diarrhoea
is persistent after several days time give five drops of the
deoderized tincture of opium twice daily, and continue
giving the subnitrate of bismuth only.

Toxic Gastro Enteritis.

Toxic gastro enteritis is an acute inflammation of the
mucotts membrane of the bowels caused by poison or by
the fowl eating irritating matter that acts as such. The
symptoms are loss of appetite, convulsions, trembling of
the muscles, vertigo drowsiness and diarrhoea. The bird
seeks quiet and may be found in some unfrequented place
with the head drawn close to the body and in a condition
of coma.

The poison operating is usually not discovered until
it is too late to treat successfully. If poison is known the
proper antidote should be administered as quickly as possible.
Make an infusion of flaxseed tea and give to the bird, also
some strong coffee or brandy to act as a stimulant. For
diarrhoea the treatment should be the same as for simple
gastro enteritis.

VENT GLEET.

Symptoms and Treatment of One of the Most Disagreeable
of Poultry Diseases.

By Dr. N. W. Sanborn.

Vent gleet is a disagreeable, contagious disease of the
mucous parts of the part of the bowel known as the vent.
It may extend to the egg passage in the hen. The origin
of this trouble is in doubt but as to its dangers there is no
question that it is the beginning of trials unnumbered.
Given a single case in a flock and the male is apt to
pass it to other members of the pen. It is seldom that you
meet with a single case. When the matter attracts your
attention the whole flock is infected.

Vent gleet is more common in the smaller and more
active breeds. Seldom do you find it in the quiet Brahma
or sedate Cochin. Many breeders tell me they never had a
case in their experience in keeping poultry. Other men
have written me a tale of woe and asked for immediate
advice by mail because their birds were going to the bad.
I have never had a case in my twenty years breeding of

Wyandottes.
The Symptom.

Vent gleet seldom attracts attention until it reaches the
second stage of the disease. If you have a few cases in
the flock and are on the watch for new cases you will learn
to know its beginnings. There is at first a simple redness
of the end of the bowel, or it sometimes appears just inside
the passage with a slight swelling of the outer membrane.
There is redness, puffiness with dryness. This is the story
of the first stage of the illness. In a day or two a slight
discharge appears. This is watery, light straw color and

2 SIMPLE POULTRY REMEDIES

irritates any part it runs over. It causes swelling and
redness of the skin if it oozes out on the surface of the
abdomen of the hen. The exudation of the parts collects in
scales, crusts, or dirty masses, wherever it dries off, or
mixes with foreign substances. It usually shows in a ring
of crust around the vent and matted into the feathers that
surround the parts.

Vent gleet is a catarrh of the vent that is intense in its
action and containing germs that are*hard to kill. No
ordinary treatment avails in the curing of this ailment. You
need to recognize the disease, know its progress, under-
stand the use of remedies, and apply all three to the cure
of the sick birds. More than this—you must prevent new
cases from appearing in your pens.

The Treatment Advised.

The first cases you see will demand prompt and strong
treatment. Permanganate of potash is probably our best
single drug in this disease. Add five grains of the drug to
one ounce water and bottle. Apply this full strength to the
inflamed parts, using a swab of cloth or cotton on a small
wooden stick. You need to be careful to avoid getting any
of the discharge into your eyes or nose in the caring for the
birds. If you can succeed in leaving a small bunch of the
wet cotton just inside the vent, even for a few minutes, you
will hurry the cure. Several applications a day may be nec-
essary but give one thorough washing a day. Get every case
of this disease out of the flock until cured.

Those in the flock that have been exposed should have
an application of peroxide of hydrogen, full strength, to the
parts, or a five per. cent solution of sulpho-carbolate of zinc
in water. It is often necessary to pluck some of the feathers
around the vent in order to better use the remedies I have
advised. Do not be in too great a rush to get the ill birds
back into the flock. This trouble is hard to cure, and many
cases will relapse at once when returned to the flock. In
other words the disease may be lurking higher up in the

LEG WEAKNESS aS

bowel or egg passage, needing only the extra excitement to
start all over again.

Wash your hands as soon as through treating these
birds, before attending to anything else, if you would avoid
trouble. Burn all swabs and applicators you may use in the
treatment.

LEG WEAKNESS.

Why Fowls Sometimes Wholly or Partly Lose the Use of
Their Limbs.

Many ask what to do for fowls that are troubled with
weakness of the legs. To answer such a question it would
be necessary to know the cause of the weakness. It may be
caused by the fowl being in an overfat condition, causing
an unhealthy state of the system, resulting in weakness of
the legs. Fowls confined in limited quarters during the
winter season, with but little exercise and an owner too gen-
erous in his feeding, very often show this trouble, and the
remedy is light feed and all the exercise possible.

An overfat fowl is of little practical use, the eggs of
hens in such a condition not hatching well, or if they do, the
chicks are deficient in vigor and health. Male birds that
are overfat do not fertilize the eggs, or if fertilized such
eggs do not produce strong chicks. Leg weakness in the
majority of cases will be found to be caused by the birds
heing loaded down with fat, in which condition they cannot
be in good health.

Leg weakness in females is sometimes caused by the
attentions of too heavy a male bird, and in such cases can
only be remedied by removing the female from where she can
receive attention from such a male. In cases where the
weakness is of a rheumatic nature, the bird should be placed
in dry comfortable quarters and fed good nutritious food,

74 SIMPLE POULTRY REMEDIES

with a little tincture of iron in the drinking water. The legs
should be bathed with some well known remedy for lame-
ness and rheumatism. We would not care to breed from
any fowl that showed a tendency to rheumatism, or in fact
from any bird that was not in possession of strong legs, set
well apart and free from -any knock-kneed tendency. A
bird set upon strong, well-shaped legs is generally of a vigor-
ous constitution and we must look ve to such points in
selecting our breeders.

~ DISEASES OF THE. SHANKS.

How to Prevent the Unsightly Troubles that Affect the Scales.

By Dr. N. W. Sanborn.

Diseases of the shanks are in plain sight. They attract
attention at first notice. ‘The hen in the breeding yard, the
cock in the show pen, with scaly legs does not please the
visitor. Poultrymen cannot afford to allow their birds to be-
come infected with any serious disease of the legs. There
are several diseased conditions of the shanks but of them
all we select “scaly legs” as the one most important to our

discussion.
Cause of the Trouble.

The rough, loose, dirty appearance of the shank is caus-
ed by the actions of a minute insect. ‘This mite lives in the
space between the scales that cover the shank, working its
way about, irritating the parts, raising the scales, and mak-
ing ugly the appearance of the parts. When once seen, scaly
Jegs should never be neglected. Except in extreme cases
his condition of the legs is not a serious matter to the life
of the hen. I have no doubt it does affect the comfort of the
bird, I know it makes a decided difference in the looks of the
fowl in the show, and it detracts from the looks of the
dressed carcass in the meat market.

DISEASES. OF THE’ SHANKS fi

on

The scale insect passes from bird to bird. The usual
way is the brooding hen passing it to the chicks that nestle
under her. Another way is crowding close on the roost in
the winter house. A hen infested with the scale mite will
pass it to her whole brocd. :

The disease is all too common. It is the rule in some
breeders’ yards to see most of the birds with it. I have
seen at the Boston and New York shows, winning birds
that had rough shanks because of the scale. A shank that
has been once affected can never be made smooth as it should
be. The insects may be destroyed, the surface of the leg
made smooth, but there will remain a deformity that is no-

ticeable.
How to Prevent it.

What can be done to prevent? Get rid of infected
stock! Cure every valuable breeder you retain! Add no
new bird until it has been treated for scale! Good birds that
you need keep for breeders can be well treated for the dis-
ease and then used for producing eggs only. Incubate and
brood the chicks with clean shanked hens or use incubators
and brooders. Allow the chicks no access to infected stock.

There are several applications that will kill the mite as
it burrows in the scales of the shank. Lard and sulphur
well rubbed into the parts will destroy the insect. Kerosene
and lard is a common remedy for this disease. Even pure
kerosene oil has been applied with decidedly good results.
There is anger in using the pure oil as it is likely to irritate
and swell the parts that it soaks into. When applied to the
skin and feathers the feathers usually drop off.

A Simple Remedy.

I like a mixture made as follows: To a cup of lard add
one heaping tablespoonful fine ground sulphur, and stir
well. When thoroughly incorporated add one tablespoonful
kerosene oil and work until you have an ointment of uniform
consistency. Rub this into all parts of the leg and toes that
are covered with scales. Be sure you get up the shank to

76 SIMPLE POULTRY REMEDIES

the line of feathers of the leg. A single application seldom
reaches every insect, so it needs to be repeated every few
days, until every mite is dead. The roosts should be wet
with some insect killer, such as napcreol or sulpho-napthol,
to cestroy stray insects.

Once free of the disease, it is clear sailing to keep from
more of it. Neglect your fowls in this matter and you will
soon have an ugly looking flock. Clear up the trouble and
prevent new cases and you will make easy work of main-
taining a flock of birds that are clean and attractive.

Bumble Foot.

“Bumble Foot,” or abscess of the foot, as it is correct-
ity called, is caused usually by injury to the member caused
by jumping from high roosts or on some hard substance.
Pus usually forms and the center of the swollen part usually
becomes a hardened and horny substance. The horny part
should be removed, the puss extracted and the wound thor-
oughly washed out with peroxide of hydrogen. After this
it may be treated with an application of one part iodoform
and twenty parts vaseline, held in place by soft gauze, protect-
ed by bandages. The specimen should be kept in a very
clean, dry coop and not allowed to exercise much until the
wound heals. The wound should be dressed and a fresh
supply of iodoform and vaseline applied daily.

BROKEN BONES AND INJURIES.

How to Set and Care for Broken Wings and Legs and Heal
Cuts and Tears.

By Dr. N. W. Sanborn.

There come times when a little knowledge of surgery is
helpful to the owner of poultry. The “fifty cent hen” may
not be worth the time and trouble to doctor but finds her
place in the pot preparing to appear on the table. But the
valuable show bird, or a fine breeder, may be made usable
again by the help of a splint for a broken bone, or a few
stitches in the torn comb or wattles.

Broken Bones.

Grown poultry seldom have broken bones outside the
wing and legs. Where you meet One case of broken wing
you see ten of broken legs. In case of broken wing bones
you can do little except to bandage the wing to the body for
a week, or two, and be willing to take a little deformity in
the healing. In case of breaks in the leg above the shank
inuch depends on the size and fatness of the leg. If the bird
is moderately thin you can apply small splints of pine to the
parts, covering the leg with a thin bandage, then a half doz-
en splints held in place by a few turns of the inch bandage.
Get the broken bone in proper relation and by means of the
home made splints and bandage hold the leg in shape till the
break becomes strong enough to bear the weight of the bird.
I have seen most broken bones in fowl in the shank. Such
a break in a valuable bird can be treated with pleasure and
profit. Wrap a layer of cotton batting around the shank.
place a dozen toothpicks so as to cover the break, and a few
turns of the bandage holds them in proper place to control
motion of the two fragments of bone. Notice that the leg
is not twisted, after setting, as it would bother the hen if her

78 SIMPLE POULTRY REMEDIES

toes were turned round and she scratched the wrong way
when she got the use of her game leg.

Little chicks occasionally get a broken shank, from be.
ing caught in the wire fence or being stepped on, and thes¢
breaks heal with rapidity if attended early. It may be tha
winding the shank with surgeons’ plaster will give sufficien
support, or the slender splints of pine may be required tc
cure. You will be surprised, and pleased, to see the amoun
of travel these birds with splints will take in the course of ¢
day.

a Cuts and Tears.

Accidents will happen to-our poultry and it is often the
best in the flock that are afflicted. There are dangers in th
‘barb of the wire fence, in the broken bottle behind the barn
the tools of the place, and also in the fighting blood of some
of our show males. Seldom a season passes without a badly
torn comb or wattle, or a deep cut in the flesh of one of my
breeders. Taken early you can repair damages so as to have
left a fairly presentable bird.

Cuts and tears need to be cleaned with a milky mix.
ture of warm water and sulpho-napthol or one of the prep:
arations of the same sort. Clean out dirt and kill gern
life. With white, fine silk and fine needle, sew the parts to.
gether. Make each stitch by itself. Do not try to run the
silk from stitch to stitch, but make one complete stitch—cu
your silk—and make another. When the parts are brough
together by the needle and silk, and blood has stopped run
ning, cover the line of the cut with “new skin” or collodion
You will find your first attempt to use the needle and sill
somewhat a queer proceeding, as it is no easy thing to ti
the knot that will hold and yet not be too tight. Work witl
clean hands; new silk and a needle that has been just held it
the flame of a match. Common cotton thread will answe
but is not so harmless to the tissues you sew.

If along the line of the cut pus begins to form bath«
with full strength hydrogen peroxide. This will foam, wil

HEART TROUBLE 79

penetrate the cut, and destroy much of the germ life in the
wound. Whenever the line of the cut:seems to be healed you
should cut with a fine pointed scissors each stitch and pull out
of the flesh. A little knowledge of these matters is needed
by owners of valuable fowl.

HEART TROUBLE.

Occasionally a fowl, usually one more than a year old,
appears to have sudden attacks of weakness. Perhaps the
bird will be crowing or cackling vigorously when sud-
denly it will gasp for breath and will stand motionless, ap-
parently not able to move, and then it will seem to recover
its vigor. Sometimes a fowl that is apparently healthy will
die suddenly after being frightened, perhaps when caught
by the owner. Sometimes a fowl drops dead from the roost
or in front of the feed pan. In such cases, heart trouble is
almost always the cause of death. Nothing can be done to
prevent such loss except by keeping the general health of
the flock as near perfect as possible for heart trouble is
usually caused by severe strain or by the ravages of some
other disease.

oct 15 1908

Index.

Page

BOWEL, TROUBLE) 2.06 het ch eee SA ee Oe ee 58
TB RUBASKE 8D OUWAN? os a8. 2S eas lo te cons: Seeen Tacos Sane tenet ol aphecaeo tian ares onl te 55
BROKEN “BONES -AND) INDIES ees eee a 17
BRONCEVUBLS! cisiecs cy oecee coe Ch Ea a eee "eee 36
BUMBIGE: OOD © sioioiw wtekete-s ches Mei eon nee eee com ire
CAIN Rakin ss eiraahah oe Siow Tee ee sdb Sec S he Welle Sere UT oe OTE LE UG a 29
CANNTBAGSISM ss ARE Aa ale ee ou eer ees ee. thee 68
CATVAVRTEOE: EINES INTACT mre yecaeie incre toh poh Nic coda oce steve Oeics eee 69
CELL GIGEIN POUL SS Ae oem a men, eaten ee ae REN Olt ee aS es ons 40
CHT OT BARA: Ga) «- 9, Bier ssa Spee oa ban Raat ae ee Oe Lacon «Rie oe ee 61
COMDG ij. SES Re Re ae See Re ee eee Nite
T—COMMON ‘REMEDIES for some. diseases <2 a.ecs. acne cies 14
CROP BOUIN A Lona Fake sia 5 Bite BlinteNOra ct Svar eiiamere te, kee eRe enc Poe ee cate meee 47
IDNA SiS Lib go) oo ly. eee rae et Ca aces MEET NCS CLE casi Aer Ate 4 33.

DISEASES OF THE HEAD—catarrhai colds, influenza, swollen
heads, white comb, apoplexy, frozen combs, pip, inflamma-

tion- of mouth; eye troubles, black ‘comb? .2- a0. seine 17
DISEASES ai baleen ait (SHOWS) Byasyfte ove fle 2st bogeasis cae Rael eee 12
IDIELOIESNET ig bole Five Sod ws, Bed) ieee pike o aike TRIE Se ARG eye SSE A ee 16
HEGT PASSAGE, SrOWblLeS MOE © oie 3 eas pcre meen ane ee nee ete 3
EX NAVE DIS: | SCORAC.” PES ECO: teearcvaseus = sucnete aie onelis aaa ne oe eee ees 69
WLI (asi BeCalse Of TdiSCASE ..2. ene boi ye ees en eieie, aio Reeae ee ee te
END ES es ees cua ee a ORS See cM see GOH SE al 8 SUR aN aa RAND Cisco RR aR Ta ne ee 65
FOOD, as a‘ caulse (Of diSCaSe Wii. v1.0. shies anne eee nC Tee 5
GAPE. AW:ORMS yf cs. eieie © ote cated ee ee hel cathe) at oe 42
GASDR TELS hs, oleae evsty sere cea oe ter etehs go etre gal tuictn ote bniee ttaes cee ace ee 60
SGOTNG: (Ts GRUB hosce AS. s acs cs tah vs tate cars Tatas nane este ROMEO ea One 57
STEAD DE UTI EFT Ge ais seeected arsed ins a oo oes gat SN ee scoite eaCeLE 19

TINE DGS S BL OUNG Soy Bevan hes a Sct ctceolge Seca etet hake oe GIy ota aTe ate ae one 49
BG SOWRAIKINEISS oo co. Sieisihoie ss epee BAC aie cree ah dlc eae one eee 73
TEAPIVE BERINGER GIG Seca seateieceae et Se se ace eee ta aueest oe Ree eae eee eee 45
Di LVaR: TO TSIASES = so ceicinsce octets «oe tote yeh eter uamenel oiemeemees Pes eee 51
ENE OIMONWAS a2 ne ee CR aE, Ce TROT at en ee = salen roOs
RATES) ons. th Sime aay iets waetaly, ae sien d shar Sys yelabe toe anna oe aaa ee 30:
TREE UIMCAUTEQME | si cicdac cc sot d cuene Week sno. site o> alle) acne eee SeaTac a ne ee 44
Bd OCs] Samara ee oe np Me a mera ea eae sloeet eet ado ota Siem ole id Os 23, 25, 27
SELAN KS Giseases VORB oir sc recislee ceca te een eerie orate eee tneney ta nes 74
SUDDEN DIHATuEIS nc auisesm of bee nein ey eles eccrine eae 9
SUNSTROKE | .......--+..2--2++--: Bet is) cs oc SSNS toe ash CR Re EERE qlat

- RUBE RCULOSIES!, sett Cickscdeyclece oe Gata, «5 cleats ie, See Ze ep cee ned eee 38
WEEDING BRD So EAI eiceeen sain suk fala one's hotas! Rane site fous hoe eee nee aE (eal
Nig SUM Ope DN OY sake SO OY. en Maloy nate hie nly igi oe omo co oot tec ace 6
VVELINGE ie Wi vHS ais, ed tenant ewes tienen i oe Faaranreticosecan cena bare Ppa Sloe oT er oe aes 32
IWIG:ERUMES | TN: “PELE CRO Pie eiay exelent Ce eeclsce ei nie) saree ikel ace eee eee treme 39
WORMS) INTESTNAT see eee ae, 3 ee eietcen ren b 63

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