CAUSE AND CURE OF SICKNESS 



145 



draught through the barrel and I 

 don't feed them anything but chick 

 feed. I put copperas in their water 

 this morning to see if that would 

 check it. I am sorry to lose all my 

 chicks after I have taken such good 

 care of them. Please let me know as 

 soon as possible what I can do for 

 them and oblige. Yours truly. Mrs. 

 C. C. B. 



Answer Your little chicks have 

 taken cold, probably from sleeping in 

 a barrel. When little chicks have 

 bowel trouble, it is almost always 

 from taking cold. In mature hens a 

 cold affects the head, throat, bron- 

 chial tubes or lungs, whilst with lit- 

 tle chicks it affects first the bowels. 



A fireless brooder might have 

 saved all your chicks. A barrel is 

 very cold, unless it is well banked 

 up on the outside and the nest inside 

 very carefully made. A flat box is 

 much better. Copperas will not help 

 them; the best thing for them is rice 

 boiled in milk with a tablespoonful 

 of ground cinnamon to each pint of 

 the milk added after cooking. Cinna- 

 mon is a good disinfectant and heal- 

 ing and warming to the bowels. Cop- 

 peras is cold and chilling and is apt 

 to give indigestion to small chicks. 



fasting followed by a dose of castor 

 oil in an hour. Be careful to clean 

 up and destroy the droppings or the 

 other chickens will eat then and the 

 trouble will increase. 



Pullets Dying We have a flock of 

 incubator chicks that are not doing 

 very well. The little pullets started 

 to die when but seven weeks old and 

 we lose one or two every day. They 

 have the whole farm to run on. At 

 first they hang their wings and act 

 sleepy, then their heads turn blue and 

 they die. We cannot find lice nor 

 fleas on them. They are fed wheat, 

 oatmeal, and some onions and milk. 

 Have plenty of water, grit and char- 

 coal. Thanking you in advance, sin- 

 cerely yours. Mrs. T. L. 



Answer I think your chickens have 

 worms; the wings drooping and their 

 acting sleepy are two of the most 1 

 prominent symptoms with worms. 

 Cut open the next one that dies and 

 examine it. The best cure that I have 

 found for worms is ten drops of tur- 

 pentine in a teaspoonful of castor oil. 

 This is for the common round worms. 

 For tape worms, which are not so 

 common, the dose is ten drops of tinc- 

 ture of male fern on a piece of bread 

 or a lump of sugar in the morning 



Diphtheric Roup Having derived 

 many useful ideas from your writings, 

 I take the liberty to ask your advice 

 regarding a disease which has come 

 upon my chickens. The first symp- 

 toms seem to be a sneezing or 

 squawking sound as if the chicken had 

 a beard in its throat; then a white 

 membrane forms over the windpipe 

 and the eyes close up and lumps 

 break out around the comb. The 

 lumps finally break and the eyes :.nd 

 nose run. Both Barred Rocks and 

 White Leghorns are afflicted. The 

 Barred seem to suffer the most. Mrs. 

 R. F. 



Answer I am sorry to say your 

 fowls have diphtheric roup. It is a 

 very infectious disease and if you have 

 children you had better keep Ihem 

 away from the fowls. Spray the 

 mouth, throat, nostrils and cleft in the 

 mouth twice a day with peroxide of 

 hydrogen. Give the fowls a quinine 

 pill, four nights in succession, and 

 once a day a bolus of the following 

 mixture: Two spoons of lard, one 

 each of mustard, cayenne pepper and 

 vinegar; mix thoroughly, add flour 

 enough to make stiff dough; give a 

 bolus as large as the first joint of 

 your little finger once every twenty- 

 four hours. Put a piece in a quart 

 of water, and allow them no other 

 drinking water for a week. 



Fatty Degeneration of Liver I 



have noticed a hen moping and eat- 

 ing but little for two or three weeks, 

 but as I had broken some up from 

 sitting, thought it the result from 

 broodiness. However, as she got no 

 better I separated her from the oth- 

 ers, but yesterday she died. This 

 morning I did as you advised, and 

 duly performed the autopsy. I saw 

 at once on making an incision what 

 was the matter. Her liver was so en- 

 larged that it occupied almost the 

 whole cavity. I never saw one such 

 a size. It was covered in blotches 

 of pink spots, small as a pin point. 

 There was fat around the heart and 

 gizzard and layers of fat around the 

 intestines; perhaps a fifth of an inch 



