CAUSE AND CURE OF SICKNESS 



149 



grit. They have lettuce every day 

 and often young vegetables tops and 

 all. Until about a week ago they 

 were kept by themselves in wire 

 pens, but as an experiment my hus- 

 band let them out to run and still 

 they get sick. They do not all die 

 as I bring them to the house as soon 

 as we find the sick ones, but from 

 one to seven die nearly every day. 

 They have fresh water every morn- 

 ing. I do not try to doctor them, 

 but just keep them warm. I have saved 

 some pretty sick ones in that way. 

 They are such a bother and we have 

 lost so many in that way. The flock 

 which is the most affected had a ha- 

 bit of huddling when they were small, 

 until they would sweat and some- 

 times die. Do you suppose that 

 could have anything to do with the 

 present troubles? Mrs F. L. 



Answer Limber neck is due to a 

 disorder of the nervous system and 

 is usually the result of disturbances 

 of the digestive organs from severe 

 attacks of indigestion or from infesta- 

 tion with worm parasites. Chicks 

 are sometimes affected in this manner 

 by unusually hot day and nights. I 

 think very probably their digestive or- 

 gans were weakened by being over- 

 heated when they huddled and I 

 would give the whole flock plenty of 

 charcoal to eat, with plenty of green 

 food and animal food, and no millet, 

 as millet is very hard to digest. Give 

 the sick birds a small piece of gum 

 asafoetida, about the size of a green 

 pea. Repeat the dose the second day. 

 This will usually cure. Feed them 

 with bruised garlic or with chopped 

 up onions. Give them grit or very 

 coarse sand in boxes to assist in the 

 digestion, and I think you will have 

 no further trouble. 



It is possible that your chickens 

 have worms. You had better open 

 the next one that dies and examine 

 it and if you find it infected, give the 

 others turpentine in the drinking wa- 

 ter, half a teaspoonful to a pint of 

 water (giving no other drinking wa- 

 ter) or if you prefer it give a tea- 

 spoonful of Castor oil with ten drops 

 of turpentine in it to each sick chick. 

 The chickens dislike the turpentine in 

 the water but it will kill the com- 

 mon round worms if continued for a 

 week. 



Liver Trouble or Poison I want 

 your advice and a remedy for my 

 sick fowls. The eymptoms are brief- 

 ly stated: Grown chickens affected 

 droop for two days, comb turns 

 black and they die. Have lost nine 

 in two days. 



My chickens have free range, fresh 

 water and plenty of barnyard scratch- 

 ing with Egyptian corn every night. 

 C. V. N. 



Answer The symptoms you de- 

 scribe denote either liver trouble or 

 poison. In your case I think per- 

 haps it is poison, either from rat 

 poison, gopher or some poisonous 

 weed. You had better hold a post 

 mortem examination on the next one 

 that dies and then you will be able 

 to tell just what the trouble is. 



Mange I have a Plymouth Rock 

 hen that- has the under part of her 

 body and legs and feet covered with 

 hard, scaley sores of all sizes from a 

 bean to a couple of inches across. 

 Some are light yellow, some red and 

 some purple in color. She seems to 

 be all right otherwise, eats good and 

 comb and head look red and healthy. 

 Please tell me what ails my hen and 

 if I can cure her. Mrs A. H. S. 



Answer I think your hen has 

 mange. I would advise you to kill 

 her and bury deeply or burn the body 

 because when it is as virulent as you 

 describe, it would be very difficult to 

 cure and all those kind of diseases are 

 exceedingly infectious. Carbolic 

 salve at the first might have cured 

 her but now it is too late and the 

 time, trouble and expense of treat- 

 ment, with the probability of the 

 others becoming affected, would not 

 pay. 



Naked Chicks Thinking perhaps 

 you can help us I will ask you for a 

 little of your time. Late in October 

 we bought a hen caring for thirty 

 chicks. We have fed them cracked 

 corn, meat scraps, plenty of green 

 stuff, charcoal and grit. They fea- 

 thered out but since many of them 

 have become bald, and the feathers 

 fall from their neck and they are 

 growing thin, still their wing feathers 

 are long, making them look very 

 queer. They are not incubator 

 chicks, and we have examined them 

 closely for mites, have dusted them 



