CHAPTER X 

 PIGEON DISEASES AND REMEDIES 



GENERAL REMARKS 



On this subject no one seems to be very capable of advising 

 except as to chief remedies and that birds should be handled in 

 such a way as to keep them healthy, thus preventing disease 

 and making medicine unnecessary. 



There are various common diseases that pigeons are more or 

 less afflicted with and some of these are harmless, while others 

 prove fatal. Later on I will describe some simple remedies that 

 I have found to be fairly effective, but cannot vouch for them 

 except in a small way. 



Pigeons are just like people and pigeon doctors are just like 

 all other doctors. One will have one theory and a remedy for 

 a certain disease, and another something entirely different. If 

 a person gets a headache or stomach trouble, one doctor will 

 prescribe certain medicines. Another doctor will tell you that 

 you need electrical treatments, another that a change of climate 

 is necessary or a visit to certain springs, or forms of violent- 1 

 exercise or dieting will bring about certain results, while anothe^r/i 

 doctor might want to massage it out of you and still another!.! 

 pronounce you incurable. All of these various characteristic?--'' 

 are found in pigeon doctors, so you can see what a person would' i- 

 be up against trying to follow the various remedies offered b^' ' 

 people with different experiences and ideas. To this I mighti; 

 add that no one seems to understand the delicate make-up of a 

 pigeon and its anatomy as some of our leading physicians do 

 the human anatomy. Then, too, it is hard to proportion remedies 

 for such a small being as a pigeon and hard to detect the results. 



You cannot feel a pigeon's pulse or take its temperature suc- 

 cessfully or ask it to describe its ailments. So, as a whole, 



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