DISEASES OF POULTRY. 



613 



as it will go without bending, then twisted between 

 the finger and thumb and drawn out. A trial 

 or two may miss, but usually five or six attempts 

 will bring up four or five worms, and the hairs 

 inserted in this way, without twisting, do not 

 seem to hurt the chicks, and are used with the 

 greatest facility. The bringing up of even from 

 four to ten worms, and the failure of more to 

 come after a blank trial or two, may usually 

 be reckoned as a cure. Another method of 

 individual treatment is to get some carbolic 

 acid (which must be of the clear or white 

 quality), and placing some in an iron spoon or 

 saucer, hold it over a lamp. Dense white fumes 

 will arise, in which the chicken's head is to be 

 immersed till nearly suffocated ; or if a number 

 have to be treated the wliole may be confined 

 in a box and fumigated at once ; being, how- 

 ever, carefully watched through a hole in the 

 box covered by a piece of glass. For, while 

 this treatment is unfailing, it is a ticklish opera- 

 tion, since the worms have to be killed without 

 quite killing the chickens, which is very easily 

 done beside. There are other methods of a 

 more general character. M. Mdgnin proved 

 repeatedly that to substitute an infusion of 

 garlic for water, and add fine-chopped garlic or 

 onions in the food, will check the complaint and 

 kill the worms. He has also tried, with marked 

 success, dissolving in the water (to kill all worms 

 that may find their way there) i part in 100 

 of salicylate of soda, and dosing each pheasant 

 with jh grains of yellow gentian and 7^ grains 

 of asafcetida — large fowls will need more. 

 Only vermifuges which, like these, have a 

 strong odour can kill parasites which inhabit 

 the air-passages rather than the digestive canal ; 

 but there is good evidence of the success of this 

 treatment in pheasant preserves which had been 

 all but exterminated by gapes. An English 

 " patent" taken out by Mr. J. H. Clark, a game- 

 keeper, is very similar. He takes and intimately 

 compounds the following : — 



Powdered quicklime ... ... i lb. 



Powdered sulphur ... ... \ „ 



Tincture of asafcetida ... i oz. 



Arsenious acid (white arsenic) 1 drachm. 



Oil of thyme, or oil of cummin i oz. 



This is kept in a close-stoppered bottle, to 

 prevent slaking of the lime or evaporation of 

 the volatile constituents. When required two 

 or three tablespoonfuls are placed in a depres- 

 sion in the centre of a coop in which the 

 chickens are confined, and then a sharp blast 

 from the nose of a bellows blows it all up into 

 the air, filling the coop and entering the nostrils 

 of the birds. It is said that one application 

 is generally effectual, but if not that two, or 



at most three, at intervals of a day, are always 

 so. We should be disposed to omit the arsenic. 

 The advertised preparations known as "Kalyde" 

 and " Camlin " are used in a similar way, and 

 are well reported upon ; even powdered air- 

 slaked lime is fairly effectual. A very im- 

 portant point is, when worms are extracted, to 

 do this on a clean sheet of paper and burn 

 every one ; and to burn, not merely bury, the 

 body of every bird that dies of gapes. 



Gout. — This may be distinguished from mere 

 leg-weakness in young birds by evident pain as 

 well as weakness, and generally by some heat and 

 swelling of the principal joints, and sometimes of 

 the feet. From rheumatism it is known by want 

 of connection with cold and wet. A bird so 

 affected should not be bred from. The treat- 

 ment will be stimulating liniment to the joints: 

 internally give a grain of calomel at night, and 

 20 grains of Epsom salts next morning, and 

 after that i grain colchicum extract or 10 drops 

 colchicum wine every day for about ten days. 



Joint Disease. — Dr. Klein found cases both 

 amongst game birds and chickens, in which a 

 disease, commencing with lameness, proceeded 

 until the bones were found softened, and some- 

 times broken, while the hock-joint became an 

 open wound. A writer noted for his hostility to 

 rearing poultry in large numbers has confounded 

 this disease with " cramp " in chickens, stating 

 that attempts to cure cramp are " worse than 

 useless," a statement that speaks for itself. 

 This disease, however, really is a hopeless one, 

 the bones and joints being practically eaten 

 away and necrosed by bacteria. If ever the 

 bones of young chickens are found really 

 softened, much more with any open wound, the 

 birds should be destroyed and burnt. It is 

 fortunate that, though destructive whenever it 

 appears, this disease is rare. 



Leg Weakness. — This is distinguished from 

 other forms of lameness by attacking almost 

 exclusively cockerels as they begin to approach 

 full size, and especially those rather long in 

 leg, while in all other respects the birds appear 

 in perfect health. The causes are length of 

 limb and too fast growth. The use of dry 

 bone-meal is to a considerable extent a preven- 

 tive. It can generally be cured if taken in 

 time by leaving off all condiments and (for a 

 time) animal food, and giving the following 

 pill :— 



Strychnine... ... ... i grain. 



Citrate of iron i drachm. 



Phosphate of lime ... i „ 



Quinine di-sulphate ... 15 grains. 



Make 30 pills. One twice to three times a day. 



Mr. Cobb advises colchicum, but this is only 



