6i8 



THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



appears generally due to dirt, or over-crowding 

 in small space, or want of green food. Appro- 

 priate treatment in any of these respects, with 

 iron tonic in the water, is necessary first of all, 

 with say 20 grains of Epsom salts to each bird, 

 followed by a pinch of sulphur in the food 

 every day for a week. The best local appli- 

 cations are carbolised vaseline to the comb and 

 other bare red appendages, and equal parts 

 of water and Wright's Liquor Carbonis- to the 

 head and neck if also affected. A far more 

 severe and highly contagious disease, marked 

 by scabs and crusts, is sometimes confounded 

 with this, but is totally different, being of 

 fungoid origin, and treated under Favus. 



Worms. — A variety of these parasites infest 

 the intestines of fowls, and some of them 

 occasionally reach the oviduct, and may thus 

 be found even in the albumen of an egg. Such 

 an occurrence should always be followed by 

 treatment ; but the other usual symptoms, such 

 as wasting away, slow movement, etc., are so 

 common in quite other diseases also, that we 

 can seldom really diagnose worms unless they 

 are found whole or in portions in the droppings, 

 or else in the intestines of dead birds subjected 

 to post-mortem examination. The usual causes 

 arc probably foul ground or water, contami- 

 nated meat or other animal food, or neglect 

 to remove the manure. The best remedies, for 

 a good sized fowl, are 2 grains santonin, or 

 10 grains powdered areca nut, or either three 

 or four drops of the oil or ten or twelve drops 

 of the extract of male fern in salad oil. Pro- 

 fessor Woodroffe Hill advises as the besc 

 remedy and dose in his experience, i grain 

 santonin combined with 7 grains of areca nut. 

 Any of these should be given after three hours' 

 fast, followed by a similar time, and then by 

 a laxative dose of salts and warm mash only 

 for a day or two. All evacuations containing 

 worms should be carefully burnt. 



Many other forms of disease, as already inti- 

 mated, are occasionally found in fowls when 

 examined post-mortem. Some of them are 

 due to small or microscopical parasites, vege- 

 table or animal ; indeed, some of the true mites 

 are occasionally found infesting the air-sacs, and 

 even the larger bronchi. Inflammation may be 

 found, from some cause, in almost any organ. 

 The kidneys and the reproductive organs are 

 found from time to time atrophied, or hypertro- 

 phied, or the subject of disease, due as a rule to 

 stimulating condiments, undue forcing with meat, 

 or sexual excess. But while these ailments may 

 be easily distinguished upon the post-mortem 

 examination, they can rarely be distinguished 

 with any certainty during life, and it would be 



of no practical use to discuss them at length, 

 while few of them would repay treatment even 

 if known. We have dealt, we believe, with such 

 as are of really practical interest to the practical 

 poultry-keeper. 



VERMIN AXn THIEVES. 



Insect Vermin. — The combating of these has 

 been partially treated already at pages 53, q6> 

 but it is desirable to add here fuller details. They 

 consist mainly of fleas, lice, red mites, and ticks, 

 besides the leg mite treated above under the 

 head of scaly leg. 



Fleas infest the houses, and especially the 

 nests, as much as they do the poultry. The 

 individual bird can be cleared at any time, for 

 the time, by a good dressing with Pyrethrum 

 insect powder, which also helps in a nest. 

 In powdering a fowl it is held by the legs 

 with the head downward, when the feathers fall 

 apart or separate, and the powder is readily 

 dredged in. Some like to give first a slight 

 spray of water to damp the roots of the feathers, 

 which retain the powder longer. Where it 

 can be obtained readily, a nest made largely 

 with leaves of common moor-fern or bracken 

 seldom has fleas ; and another good plan is 

 to use as a nest-egg one of the hollow white 

 perforated ones in which is a piece of sponge 

 soaked with eucalyptus oil. But the house must 

 be systematically treated with hot lime-wash and 

 carbolic two or three times yearly, and frequently 

 spraying the walls with some carbolic mixture, 

 uf which the following is cheap and effectual : 

 Boil half a pound of soft soap in three quarts of 

 water, and while still boiling hot agitate with it 

 a quart of the crude carbolic acid. Keep this 

 corked and labelled " Poison," and when a wash 

 is wanted mix a pint with a bucket of water, 

 and syringe with it freely. Another wash quite 

 as good is made by shaving up a pound of yellow 

 soap in three pints of boiling water, keeping hot 

 till all dissolved ; then remove from the fire 

 to avoid danger, add three pints of common 

 kerosene and a gill of crude carbolic acid, and 

 agitate briskly for fifteen minutes, which will 

 make a creamy emulsion. When well emulsified 

 add twelve quarts of weak soap solution and 

 mix well. This is to be sprayed freely over the 

 interior ; if twenty quarts suds are added instead 

 of twelve, it makes a very good dip or wash for 

 the birds. These mixtures are as good for mites 

 in the house or lice on the birds as lor fleas. 



Lice on birds may be also treated, as mentioned 

 on page 96, either with insect powder or oil con- 

 taining a little paraffin. The birds may also be 

 dipped in the above dip, or in one made by 

 mi.xing about 2\ ounces of creolin to one gallon 



