154 



MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK 



like a chick with the gapes. Open 

 their mouths and gasp with a strained, 

 worried look on their faces. Live 

 about twelve hours and die choking 

 to death in one last convulsion. These 

 so affected have not so much odor at 

 nostrils as majority. No mucus spots 

 in throat. Throat seems to be full of 

 phlegm. Don't eat at all. Spraying 

 throat with glyco-thermoline and acid, 

 and painting with iodine or running 

 feather saturated with coal oil down 

 wind pipe offers no relief whatever. 

 No one around me seems to know of 

 any remedy. If you can diagnose it 

 and suggest a remedy, will appreciate 

 it greatly, as I hate to lose chickens 

 when they get this old, and I put 

 great faith in your suggestions. 



Answer I sympathize most sin- 

 cerely with you in your trouble from 

 your beautiful pullets taking cold, and 

 wish I could help you. I think you 

 have been doing all that was possible. 

 You see, hens are very much like hu- 

 man beings. One person will have 

 neuralgia from a draught, while an- 

 other will have a sore throat, and 

 while from the same cause one may 

 have catarrh, in another the trouble 

 will be bronchitis or even pneumonia. 

 Now, I think with your pullets, some 

 of them have catarrh, others swell 

 heads, and with others the catarrh 

 has gone down lower into the bron- 

 chial tubes and possibly into the lungs 

 themselves. 



Now as to treatment. If I remem- 

 ber rightly, the roup cure you are 

 using is made principally of perman- 

 ganate of potash and bluestone (sul- 

 phate of copper). Both of these are 

 excellent germicides and by killing 

 the germs of the catarrh or roup, they 

 prevent their multiplying, and give 

 nature a chance to recuperate. I 

 think, though, the roup cure is more 

 effective than the severer medicines, 

 such as turpentine and carbolic acid, 

 so I now recommend that your roup 

 cure be given in the drinking water, 

 at the same time dipping the head in 

 the same. Or you can put one cupful 

 of kerosene oil into two parts of wa- 

 ter. The oil will float on top; dip 

 the fowl's head slowly under this, 

 holding it there while you count three. 

 It will sneeze and cough and you 

 must wipe off the mucus with a rag 

 and burn the rag. 



With some of the fowls the catarrh 

 will go deeper and for these I think 



the peroxide of hydrogen, spraying 

 the throat well, is the best, giving 

 always the permanganate of potash 

 and bluestone in the drinking water. 



For those that have developed bron- 

 chitis or where you think the bron- 

 chitis may be just commencing, give 

 aconite, one drop in a teaspoonful 

 of milk, twice or three times a day. 

 The symptoms you describe are ex- 

 actly those of bronchitis, so I feel 

 confident in recommending the aco- 

 nite. Dr. Woods recommends the 

 "Aconite, Bryonia and Spongis mix- 

 ture," but I have not tried it. The 

 mixture is "ten drops of the tincture 

 of each in an ounce of alcohol. Use 

 a teaspoonful of this in a quart of 

 drinking water." I think this might 

 be very useful, especially at the com- 

 mencement of a cold or bronchitis. 

 Dr. Woods says that two doses will 

 often effect a cure. Or you can get 

 this in tablet form at the drug store. 

 The tablet (1-100 of a grain in 

 strength) can be given one to each 

 bird two or three times a day or 

 twelve tablets in each pint of drinking 

 water. 



I have found a teaspoonful of honey 

 with five drops of eucalyptus oil, 

 twice a day, to be an excellent cure. 

 The honey is very soothing and is also 

 nourishing and sustaining. Bronchitis 

 is a very debilitating illness and the 

 fowl should be fed only liquid nour- 

 ishment, such as raw egg beaten up 

 with half the amount of milk, about 

 two teaspoonsful every two or three 

 hours. I have given a tablespoonful 

 of milk or milk with honey mixed. I 

 have a small "invalid drinking cup;" 

 it is a narrow cup with a spout like a 

 tea pot, which I have found very use- 

 ful and handy, as I could insert the 

 spout a little ways down the throat 

 of the hen and none of the liquid 

 would be spilt. A child's toy teapot 

 with a rather long spout will answer 

 the purpose, but an invalid drinking 

 cup, costing ten cents, is extremely 

 useful and worth many times its price 

 for chickens. You can use a dropping 

 tube also for administering liquid 

 medicine. I realize that with the large 

 number of fowls that you have you 

 want an easy and quick way of doc- 

 toring, and the only way is the drink- 

 ing water. 



In cases of cold or the cold going 

 deeper as into bronchitis, or pneumo- 

 nia, fowls need very easily digested, 



