The Question Box. 189 



Question. — What is wrong with my chicks ? Both hen-hatched 

 and incubator chicks are dropping off the same way. They seem 

 all right when hatched, but begin to have fits, and die after they 

 are about a week old. Some are pasted up behind, and some void 

 whitish slimy droppings, and chirp as though it hurt to pass them. 

 Nearly all will fall down in a fit if startled, or even when running 

 about the pen. In the fit, they stretch out with heads back or with 

 wings and feet- cramped. Sometimes they gasp and pant. They 

 don't look right when they don't have these spells, and they walk 

 wobbly as though their legs were stiff in the joints. Some have 

 their legs and feet all dried up and the toes drawn up. I am feed- 

 ing them and caring for them just as I have always done with 

 chicks before, and this is my first " bad luck " season. Can you 

 set me right ? 



Dr. Smead. — The fact of their being hatched strong and free 

 from the ailments which follow when a week of age shows quite 

 conclusively that there is some condition along lines of your feed- 

 ing and management that brings on the trouble. The bowel 

 trouble by the food and the rheumatics by dampness or crowding, 

 or by sudden change or an improper temperature of your brooder. 

 In order to offer definite advice, I should have to know what 

 present conditions are. But will say, make a change in your feed- 

 ing, at any rate; while it may have been successful under past 

 conditions, it may be all wrong now; also, if not what you believe 

 to be right, change the conditions in the brooder. 



The following questions were answered by Dr. Mark D. 

 Williams. 



1. Is there any known remedy for " going light " in fowl ? 

 Answer. — ■ Yes. The disease is caused by a germ (bacteria). 



The disease manifests itself by the fowls' becoming dull, with great 

 loss of flesh and weight, a tottering gait, good appetite, increasing 

 weakness, and death in a few days or a month, and is more aggra- 

 vated by damp weather. It is much like bacterial enteritis and 

 cholera, but there is little or no diarrhoea. R. Treatment for half- 

 grown fowl : Hyposulphite of soda, 2 grains ; sulphate of iron, 

 1 grain; oxide of iron (Venetian red), 30 grains. If there is 

 diarrhoea, add subnitrate of bismuth, 1 grain. Mix and give in 

 feed, or in pill, morning and night. Great care should be taken 

 not to make a mistake and give oxide of lead (red lead) as it is a 

 deadly poison. 



2. (a) What is roup? (b) Is it contagious? (c) How can it be 

 prevented? (d) How cured? 



