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MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK 



the disease, and I am very sorry to 

 have to tell you that there is no cure 

 for it when once it has commenced. 

 You may be able to prevent the young 

 ones catching it by moving them on 

 to fresh ground, and thoroughly dis- 

 infecting the yards and coops. 



Vertigo Being an interested reader 

 of your question department, I take 

 the liberty of asking you about my 

 little chicks. They have a queer dis- 

 ease that I never saw before. They 

 commence to hold their heads to one 

 side, keep twisting their necks until 

 they fall down and roll over and seem 

 in a kind of fit, and then jump up; 

 seem better for a while and then go 

 through with the same performance 

 until they die. They peep as if in 

 pain. I have lost several. I feed corn 

 bread and sour milk curd and they 

 run in the orchard. Do you know 

 what it is and is there a cure for it? 

 They have no vermin. Mrs. R. B. L. 



Answer Your chickens have verti- 

 go. This is usually caused by acute in- 

 digestion, from wrong feeding, from 

 sunstroke, from intestinal worms, 

 from poison or from lice. Overcrowd- 

 ing the chicks also has a tendency to 

 bring it on. I have known of several 

 cases similar to yours from the chicks 

 having eaten putrid meat. The best 

 treatment is a little Epsom salts in the 

 water, about a teaspponful to a pint of 

 water. Give this as their drinking wa- 

 ter. Give plenty of fresh clean water 

 and green food. If you think it is 

 worms, put a teaspoonful of turpen- 

 tine in a quart of the drinking water 

 or mix their mash with it and give it 

 also to them to drink. This will kill 

 the worms. If you think it is from 

 poison, give each chick a pill of asa- 

 foetida, about a two-grain pill or even 

 smaller if the chickens are very small. 



Tumor and Dropsy I had a White 

 Leghorn hen die a week ago from an 

 ailment which puzzles me. Have looked 

 through what poultry books I have, 

 but can find nothing touching it. The 

 hen was swollen between the legs to 

 an unusual size and got so bad it could 

 not walk. Finally it died, and, upon 

 opening it, at least a quart of water 

 came away. The intestines were joined 

 together in one solid piece. Can you 

 tell me the cause and cure, as I have 

 a Hamburg hen developing the same 



symptoms, and would like to save it if 

 possible?;. L. W. 



Answer Your hen died of dropsy, 

 combined with a tumor, probably ova- 

 rian. There is no known cure for this, 

 as by the time it becomes visible, the 

 disease has progressed too far, and is 

 usually only discovered after death. 

 Some hens seem more subject to this 

 complaint than others, and I would 

 advise you to get in fresh blood and 

 keep the hens healthy by feeding an 

 abundance of green food. The cause 

 is obscure. 



Vent Gleet One of my hens and 

 fine, large cockerel have a sort of 

 diarrhoea with a very bad smell to it. 

 It seems to scald the vent, which is 

 red and swollen and there are scabs 

 on it. Can you tell me the cause and 

 cure of this? Mrs. J. F. Y. 



Answer Your hen and probably 

 the cockerel also have vent gleet. This 

 is usually caused by an egg being 

 broken inside the. hen, which causes 

 inflammation. It is, I am sorry to 

 say, contagious, and the birds should 

 be at once isolated and treated. Pre- 

 pare a warm bath of water as hot as 

 can be borne on the wrists, in which 

 has been dissolved a tablespoonful of 

 bi-carbonate of soda, to two quarts of 

 water. Immerse the fowl's abdomen 

 and vent in this hot water and hold 

 the bird there from fifteen to twenty 

 minutes. Then dry the parts with a 

 clean cloth and give an injection of 

 an infusion of green tea with five 

 grains each of sugar of lead and sul- 

 phate of zinc to each ounce of the in- 

 fusion, two tablespoonsful being one 

 ounce. The sores and ulcers around 

 the vent should be kept dusted with 

 iodoform or aristol. Repeat the treat- 

 ment once a day until the bird is 

 cured. A dose of thirty grains of 

 Epsom's salts will help cool the blood. 

 Feed lightly and give plenty of green 

 food. If not well after two or three 

 weeks, kill the bird, as the disease is 

 not quite free from danger, for if the 

 operator should touch his eyes acci- 

 dentally before cleansing his hands, 

 the result might be a most violent in- 

 flammation. 



White Comb My fine Orpington 

 rooster is developing a peculiar dis- 

 ease. A few months ago he was in 

 the pink of perfection, but his comb 

 has become all covered with white 



