CAUSE AND CURE OF SICKNESS 



155 



light and nourishing food. I have 

 found nothing better than bread and 

 milk. To this can be added a little 

 bran, or a few eggs can be beaten up 

 with the milk before putting in the 

 bread if you think necessary. You 

 did perfectly right to segregate the 

 fowls. Colds of all kinds, even pneu- 

 monia, are infectious. 



I would strongly advise you to 

 house your hens in open front houses. 

 In this way there would be no 

 draughts from windows left open. 

 Open front houses are a preventive of 

 both bronchitis and pneumonia. 



I have found that the pills or asa- 

 foetida and quinine which I recom- 

 mend in my book, if give'n at the 

 very outbreak of a cold, frequently 

 cure with one dose; also the mixture, 

 No. 5. This is Mr. Hunter's old rem- 

 edy and has been found successful 

 by hundreds of people. 



Roup How to Cure It I have 

 over a hundred hens, all breeds. A 

 good many of them are sick; I have 

 tried everything, but to date I have 

 not found anything to do them good. 

 A yellow, hard substance that has a 

 very bad odor forms in their mouths 

 and eventually in their windpipes and 

 they drop over dead. I have lost 

 about thirty inside of one month. I 

 feed chopped corn and wheat, with 

 plenty of P'ratt's chicken food. Use 

 Conkey's Roup Cure and bluestone. 

 They run at the nose and their eyes 

 swell shut; others look fine, combs 

 red, and you would not know any- 

 thing was wrong with them until they 

 fall over dead. Can you tell me what 

 is the matter with them and what I 

 am to do with them? I paid $1.00 a 

 piece for my hens and it is hard to 

 see them all die and not know what 

 to do for them. Mrs. R. B. 



Answer I am very sorry to say 

 that it is diphtheritic roup that your 

 hens have very like diphtheria in 

 children. 



It is a germ disease. At first the 

 hens take a little cold and the germ 

 then seems to take root and the yel- 

 low leather-like spots commence to 

 grow and continue until they choke 

 the fowls. 



The first thing to do is to separate 

 the healthy fowls from those that are 

 sick and disinfect the premises thor- 

 oughly. Discover if possible what is 

 giving the fowls a cold.^ The usual 



causes of cold are a draught in the 

 sleeping room, a narrow draught 

 that strikes on the fowls as they 

 roost, caused by a crack or a knot- 

 hole, or a house that has no ventila- 

 tion; too much crowding at night, 

 which makes the fowls hot and 

 sweaty, and they take cold when they 

 come out in the morning fresh air, 

 or roosting outside in the rain and 

 dew. Lice will also give them cold 

 and will carry infection from fowl to 

 fowl. When one fowl has a cold, the 

 others are very likely to catch it from 

 the water, from the food or from 

 contact in sleeping on the same perch. 

 I explain this so you may decide for 

 yourself what is causing the trouble 

 and may use preventive measures and 

 stop their taking cold. 



Now for some cures: Last August 

 I gave eight different roup cures. I 

 will not repeat them all here, but will 

 say put a good cure into the water 

 (I will try to send you one by mail). 

 A bit of bluestone (sulphate of cop- 

 per) as large as a navy bean, in a 

 quart of water, is an excellent rem- 

 edy and preventive. Bluestone is a 

 germ killer and when it is in the 

 water it will kill the germs that float 

 off the chicken's nostrils, and that 

 would infect another fowl. It also 

 kills any germs that it may reach 

 in the sick fowl's nostril and so dries 

 up the cold in the head. Of course, 

 it is a strong astringent poison and 

 should not be given in stronger doses 

 than I have indicated. Also keep 

 those pretty bits of blue out of reach 

 of the baby. Rub the heads of those 

 that have watery eyes with carbolized 

 vaseline and put a little into the nos- 

 trils and in the cleft of the mouth. 



For those that have the white or 

 yellow spots, spray the mouth or 

 swab it with peroxide of hydrogen 

 twice a day. Use it half and half 

 water. The peroxide of hydrogen 

 kills the diphtheria and will prevent 

 its developing. There is a possibility 

 that the spots may be canker in some 

 cases (those that are apparently not 

 very sick), in which case get four 

 grains of sulpho-carbolate of zinc, dis- 

 solve in one ounce of distilled water 

 and paint the spots lightly. This 

 will kill the germ of canker. It is not 

 the same germ as the diphtheria, and 

 the two medicines cannot be mixed, 

 as they may be said to neutralize each 

 other. If you are not sure which dis- 



