746 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



appetite, the affected birds are dull, have difficulty in keeping with their 

 companions, and as the disease advances their wings droop and they 

 stand with closed eyes and head drawn back into the body. Frequently 

 the head is thrown forward and they gape or give a convulsive shake 

 in order to loosen the obstruction in the windpipe and permit the en- 

 trance of air. In this condition they are liable to die suddenly from 

 suffocation, from exhaustion, or from being trampled by theiir fellows 

 at night. 



The most vigorous and the older birds show only mild symptoms or 

 none at all. They may gape occasionally, but their appetites remain 

 good and they continue to grow. However, as the soil becomes more 

 and more intensely infested the proportion of the chickens which are 

 able to resist the attacks of these parasites become less, until finally it 

 may be almost impossible to raise either chickens or turkeys. 



Treatment. — Reliance must be placed upon prevention rather than 

 cure, because a chicken 2 to 3 weeks old has not sufficient value to war- 

 rant the expenditure of much time or medicine in its treatment. 



Sometimes it is found advisable to extract the worms or to inject 

 some liquid into the windpipe which will kill them. Extractors are 

 made in various ways. Generally a small quill feather is stripped of 

 all of its web except a small tuft at the end, and this is used either dry 

 or moistened with kerosene or oil of turpentine. A fairly good extractor 

 may be made by taking a hair from a horse's tail, bending it in the mid- 

 dle, and twisting the two ends together so as to form a loop; or a sim- 

 ilar loop may be made by cutting the hair, laying the two pieces side by 

 side, tying a knot near the end, trimming the short ends close to the 

 knot, and twisting the long ends together. These homemade extractors 

 have been imitated in the poultry supply trade by doubling and twisting 

 a small flexible wire which carries a few moderately stiff hairs to scrape 

 off the worms. 



These extractors are all used in the same manner. The chicken's beak 

 is forced open with the thumb and fingers of the left hand, while the ex- 

 tractor is held in the right hand. When the glottis, which is a small 

 aperture at the root of the tongue, is opened for breathing, the extractor 

 is carefully inserted and pressed downward into the windpipe. The neck 

 should be kept extended in a straight line, so that the extractor will en- 

 ter freely and not injure the delicate walls of the windpipe. At the first 

 insertion the loop or brush should not pass more than an Inch below 

 the glottis; then it should be given two or three turns between the 

 thumb and finger and withdrawn. If any worms adhere to it, these should 

 be dropped into a basin of hot water or kept and burned. The extractor 

 may now be inserted a little deeper, and so until it reaches nearly the 

 full length of the neck. If the slightest resistance is felt to the entrance 

 of the extractor, it should not be pressed upon or inserted any farther. 

 In all cases the extractor must be quickly withdrawn to avoid suffocating 

 or otherwise injuring the chicken. Often 8 or 10 worms may be removed 

 in this manner, and if the treatment has not been so rough as to cause 

 injury, the symptoms will be very much improved. 



Recently good results have been reported from medicating drinking 

 water with 15 grains of salicylic acid or 3 drams of aalicylate of soda 



