=^^ 



59 



with kerosene four times a year, so that it can be seen that scaly leg is a 

 real menace and to be avoided at all hazard. If the disease actually breaks 

 out, coops, nesting places, and so forth should be liberally sprayed with 

 disinfectant and kerosene applied to the legs of infected birds. 



Setting hens should also be carefully examined for symptoms of skin 

 necrosis which attacks the mouth and throat and the skin of the abdomen 

 and chest. When the skin is affected, it appears as " thick, dry, greenish- 

 yellow, friable deposits" (Tegetmeier) . Burn the body of the infected 

 hen. Treat ground on which she has been with quicklime and do not use 

 it for birds for a year if possible. 



The other ailments of pheasants for the most part respond slowly, if 

 at all to treatment and little in the way of medication can be done. Iso- 

 lation, cleanliness, dry quarters free from draughts and care in feeding are 

 about all that can be done, provided the bird is not destroyed forthwith 

 and its body burned, which is frequently the wisest course to pursue. 



The following list of diseases, their symptoms and treatment, is taken 

 for the most part from Tegetmeier: 



ROUP. — Cause, micro-organism known as a protozoon, an infectious 

 specific parasite; symptoms, white patches in mouth and pharynx, mouth 

 filled with viscid slime. Treatment, add salicylate to drinking water, a 

 pinch or two; free the mouth from growths and dress affected parts with 

 a strong solution of boric acid. Disease usually curable when only mouth 

 affected. Dress ground of pen heavily with quicklime and turn under 

 after three days. Conkey's roup cure is recommended by some. 



CRAMPS. — An affection of the bones of the legs, commencing usually 

 in one and spreading to the other, making locomotion nearly impossible. 

 Usually fatal within three days. No treatment is known but the germ 

 thought to cause the disease probably flourishes in wet ground, so move 

 the birds to high, dry ground as soon as trouble appears and cover the 

 ground with quicklime as in roup. Burn the body of the infected bird. 



ENTERITIS. — Severe purging accompanied with yellow evacuations 

 characterizes it. No effective treatment is known. Burn the bodies of 

 infected birds, move non-infected ones to fresh ground and treat the in- 

 fected soil with quicklime. 



Enteritis is sometimes caused by the presence in the intestinal tract 

 of a sporozoon micro-organism. The symptoms are loss of appetite, 

 emaciation, constipation, followed by diarrhoea, the evacuations being 

 "often brick red, more often whitish, then greenish" (Tegetmeier). Great- 

 est mortality occurs in birds from three to six weeks old. Adult pheasants 

 and domestic fowl frequently resist the disease, but the cysts of the para- 

 sites, passed out in their droppings, infect the ground and any food that 



