POULTRY. 587 



Indigestion will cause dysentery, diarrhoea, constipation, stomach cramps, swelled crop, 

 loss of appetite, fever, and general disorder in the internal functions. Thus, under one head 

 we refer to all these, and advise due care in feeding, and properly contrived quarters for 

 sheltering, at all seasons, as a prevention to this not uncommon malady among poultry. The 

 symptoms of this trouble are very plainly exhibited, when a domesticated bird is affected by 

 it seriously. There is no mistaking the fluid discharges, the straining to void this mucus, 

 the rapid decline in the flesh, and the spiritless condition into which they droop, after a brief 

 term. And it will be necessary to look to them promptly and energetically, as soon as the 

 indications mentioned are discovered or they get beyond the reach of doctoring, from the 

 excessive internal and intestinal limitation occasioned by this indigestion, and their 

 continuously ineffectual exertions to relieve themselves, in the natural way. But this 

 irregularity, like other diseases, must not be mistaken for what it is not. 



.Lice. Though not of itself literally a disease, the presence of house and body vermin is 

 absolutely the great cause of more torment, sickness, and destruction to chicken and fowl 

 life than all other evils to which poultry is subject. Young birds are more frequently killed 

 from being infested with lice on the bodies, in the nests and coops, or about the roosts they 

 frequent, than through all other causes poultry -keepers wot of. There is no controlling the 

 depredations of these insidious parasites, save by their extermination, and this can be effected 

 only by constant care and vigilance. The whole feathered tribe (in a domestic state) is 

 peculiarly subject to this infection. Many persons who keep fowls, pigeons, or pet cage- 

 birds, do not understand this. And rarely taking effective measures to prevent their 

 accumulation, they know not why it is that their fowls fail, droop, sicken, and die one after 

 another, from no apparent organic indisposition. The trouble is they have been &quot; eaten up 

 alive,&quot; by vermin. 



Upon young chicks of the crested variety, such as Houdans, Polands, etc., the tufts of 

 their heads are a favorite shelter for vermin; and hundreds are thus destroyed, annually, by 

 these parasites. Great care should be exercised by breeders of these varieties, to keep their 

 chicks free from this nuisance. It is not sufficient that you clear out this pest once, or twice, 

 or thrice. If you continue to breed fowls, you must not only continue to drive these parasites 

 away, but you must keep them at a distance or they will beat you, in the end. Lousy 

 fowls are never healthy, and are usually short-lived. Three-fourths of all the chicks that die 

 before they are two months old, are killed by vermin. And those who lose them can never 

 account for the fearful mortality accruing among their chickens. But all this destruction 

 may be avoided, and there is a certain remedy for this offensive and troublous nuisance; 

 which precedes and fatally aids the inception, progress, and finale to all other described 

 &quot; diseases,&quot; save those of accident or inheritance. 



Prevention of the possibility of their presence to any extent, in your hen-houses, or upon 

 the bodies of the fowls, is the only positive cure for this evil. To effect this, the building, 

 however economically constructed should be of dimensions proportionate to the number of 

 birds you keep under a single roof; and these should be rendered comfortable for the stock. 

 When you first place fowls within the house, see to it that every bird is cleansed from lice, 

 before he or she enters it. Don t begin at the wrong end, by putting lousy fowls into a new or 

 clean hen-house. To clear them of parasites, rub dry powdered sulphur, or carbolic powder, 

 thoroughly through the feathers (to the skin) of adult fowls; and under each wing of cocks 

 and hens, smear a little mixture of lard, sulphur-dust, and kerosene as well as a dab of this 

 also at the back of the head, and around and above the vent. Follow this up (outside your 

 clean house) for three days and you will thus, when you introduce your birds to their 

 chosen premises, carry in no vermin from the commencement. 



Upon young chicks, the lard and kerosene should be dispensed with. The powdered 

 sulphur alone, or the carbolic powder, if thoroughly applied, is sufficient on their little bodies; 



