CRAMP IN CHICKENS. 



97 



the vent, causing much distress, and death 

 unless relieved. Such should either be washed 

 or the dry matter picked off, bringing the down 

 with it, after which the part should be well 

 greased with vaseline to prevent adhesion. For 

 mild cases it is often enough to give a feed or 

 two of rice boiled in milk, rather dry but not 

 hard. When known to be caused by wet or 

 chill, a drop of camphor essence at every feed 

 is often of the greatest service. More serious 

 cases are best treated by chlorodyne, giving 

 two drops for a three days chick, up to five 

 drops for ten days or a fortnight, every two 

 hours for a few doses, then every three hours 

 till distinctly convalescent. Meantime the diet 

 and surroundings will be carefully examined, 

 and anything that seems wrong effectually 

 remedied. 



Cramp, as it is called, is specially found in 



the case of early chickens, but includes several 



complaints more or less distinct. The symptom 



common to all, is failure of power in 



Cramp in ^j^^ ^ ^^.jjl^ ^^ without swelling. 



Chickens. ° . . , , ^, 



or contraction of the claws. The 

 limbs seem to get stiff and weak, and the chick 

 rocks or rolls in its gait. Then the claws may 

 so flex, that walking takes place on the knuckles 

 if at all ; finally death ensues. Whole broods 

 are lost in this way. The connection with cold 

 or wet in early seasons is plain enough as a 

 general rule ; and when these are the sole causes 

 it is simply a case of rheumatism, to be treated 

 by warmth, gentle friction of the limbs and 

 claws, and hot bathing of the limbs, with any 

 of the stimulating liniments advertised in the 

 newspapers, and a grain or two, twice a day 

 for each chick, of salicylate of soda. But this 

 simple case rarely occurs, and if it docs is such 

 a symptom of debilitated constitution, that cure 

 for the time is scarcely desirable ; birds so 

 delicate are better dead before they can pro- 

 pagate their weakness. 



There are other cases in which the chickens 

 have run upon a wooden, or brick, or stone 

 floor. Here the connection with the season is 

 indirect : the chicks were confined for protection 

 upon these hard and even floors. This strains 

 the muscles, and the result is a sort of cramp, 

 in the true sense of that word. The only remedy 

 in such cases is ample loose material, at least an 

 inch deep, over the entire hard floor, an open 

 run outside, and keeping them short enough of 

 food to make them run constantly. The soft 

 floor, open runs, and the actual running are the 

 main points, and, if taken in fair time, will 

 generally cure. In these cases there is not neces- 

 sarily constitutional weakness to be dreaded. 

 Mere dry cold is not at all a drawback to rearing 



chickens : it is wet or wind that does mischief. 

 In Scotland and America, where the cold is far 

 greater than in England, greater average size is 

 attained, though more food is consumed ; and 

 excessive heat in summer will do more harm 

 than cold in spring. 



But the greater number of cases are distinct 

 from either of these, and are due largely to over- 

 feeding, especially if much meat be given. Thi? 

 cause may be no doubt aided by too much 

 coddling, or a hard floor. The latter may tend 

 towards the real cramp noticed above, while 

 overfeeding accumulates poison in the system, 

 and the birds are lazy, and take no exercise to 

 work it off. It is more like gout than anything, 

 in reality ; and every doctor knows that rheu- 

 matism and gout are close allies, both being con- 

 nected with accumulation of uric acid in the 

 tissues. Here, too, the connection with cold 

 and wet is indirect. The chicks get more and 

 richer food to withstand it, and are lazy and 

 chilly, and nestle more under the hen than they 

 would in warm weather. Hence the mischief 

 The salicylate will be the best medicine, com- 

 bined with two or three grains of Epsom salts, 

 or potass bicarbonate ; and rubbing with lini- 

 nient, best of all one containing turpentine, 

 with flexing and working the claws, will help. 

 But the only real remedy, and the practical 

 preventive, is plenty of running about ; and 

 the food must be scanty enough to make them 

 run, and come out to search for it. This kind 

 of cramp has often carried off chicks kept 

 altogether in a warm box. It constantly 

 attacks those packed into a greenhouse. If such 

 chicks 2Sf taken in time, and put out in the air, 

 in an open run, but with dry ashes or peat moss 

 under foot, and kept just enough starved to 

 make them hungrily active, the cramp disappears; 

 it is gout from overfeeding and laziness. Very 

 young chickens, up to five weeks old, should 

 have the best of food, and be sedulously at- 

 tended to, but always kept hungrily active. 

 Such birds are not attacked by cramp, unless 

 the victims of hereditary weakness or disease. 



A brood or two, with proper care, may thus 

 be steered through the dangers of early chicken- 

 hood ; but where many are to be reared, a word 

 of caution is required as to the 

 Grownd urgent necessity for f/^rt« _^r(7z/;/</. If 



broods are brought up in succession 

 upon the same spot, the later ones do not thrive 

 like the earlier ones, and may show a kind oi 

 falling away that seems unaccountable. The 

 reason is that the ground is tainted. Much can 

 be done by arrangement and care; placing coops, 

 not too close, upon a broad strip of hard gravel 

 or earth, whose surface is rigorously scraped 



