122 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK 



Liver Complaint 



Personally I have only met once with a case in California which 

 might be called Blackhead. I have seen many cases of common 

 liver complaint, and by my directions others have succeeded in 

 curing many of these. 



Dr. Salmon tells us that the seat of the disease called Blackhead 

 is in the caeca. The caeca is sometimes called the blind bowel ; 

 it is a sort of "appendix" in the turkey, having no outlet. It is two 

 lobes of bowel united by a ribbon of fat (the pancreas). In Black- 

 head and also in some cases of liver complaint, an abscess forms in 

 one or both caeca, but this can only be discovered after death, and 

 I have only found it in a post mortem of one turkey. The fact is, I 

 have been so very "lucky" in raising turkeys that now I rarely 

 even see a sick turkey, and I have many letters from our readers 

 telling me they have cured their turkeys by my directions, so I will 

 repeat them again for the benefit of new comers. 



First, liver complaint comes from wrong feeding, or over-feed- 

 ing, which has overworked the liver; secondly, Blackhead comes 

 from a parasite; thirdly, the symptoms of both diseases are almost 

 exactly the same in the first stages. Dr. Cushman, in discussing 

 this matter, decided that when the bright yellow diarrhoea comes 

 on, showing liver trouble, the remedy is "something bitter and 

 something sour." This is easy to remember. He also recommends 

 no food but green food and says that turkeys have been known to 

 cure themselves by living on acorns. 



My remedy is first a liver pill followed by quinine for a week, 

 and sour milk and no food but onions and green alfalfa or grass, 

 keeping this up until cured. 



I have a letter from a successful turkey raiser of Long Beach, 

 near Los Angeles. She writes: "I wish to tell you my experience 

 with liver sick turkeys. I had a gobbler weighing eighteen or 

 twenty pounds, and I made the mistake so many do of allowing 

 turkeys and chickens to run together; my experience is that tur- 

 keys, especially toms, will not stand such quantities of food that 

 hens do. Well, he got very sick, so bad he was as light as a feather, 

 and my cure, which never fails was administered a bottle of Ja- 

 maica ginger and a bottle of liquozone were procured. I put him in 

 a clean, large coop and he lay on a bed of straw for days, so weak 

 he could not stand. The first day I gave him one teaspoonful of the 

 ginger and one teaspoonful of the liquozone mixed and diluted until 

 it was not too strong, giving two or three spoons every hour of the 

 diluted. The next day giving it three times a day ; after that twice 

 a day. I did not allow him anything to eat, but of an evening gave 

 him the smallest sized capsule of quinine. Kept that up until he 

 began to get good and hungry, then fed him a few grains of wheat, 

 only about six grains, and a little speck of alfalfa. I have found that 

 feed kills them every time when they are so sick. I never fail to 

 cure the worst cases if I treat them like I tell you. Then if they 

 hump up again and begin to get sick again, I give them a dose in 



