104 The Business Hen. 



system or possibly from bacterial and parasitic forms. As the name indi- 

 cates the fowls become thin and light in weight. When communicable 

 disease is concerned there will be no attempt at diagnosis until the fowls 

 are visibly affected and begin to die. Should they die suddenly without 

 previous illness one may suspect infectious leukaemia. Should there be 

 some droopiness noted and the fowls stop feeding cholera may be the cause. 

 In both these diseases many fowls of the flock will be affected, while in 

 chronic forms of these and other diseases there will be but few at a time. 

 Since medicinal treatment will always prove unsatisfactory the exact 

 diagnosis of a disease will not matter, for the same thorough steps must 

 be taken to limit the spread of the disease whether it be one thing or 

 another. There is no help for the poultryman except in that perpetual 

 vigilance which wards off all diseases. 



GAPES. — This is caused by worms one-half to three-fourths inch long, 

 which attach themselves inside the windpipe. They are always red from 

 the blood taken from the fowls. Here they breed and when adult are 

 coughed out upon the ground, when their eggs are sown broadcast. 

 Artificially raised chicks will not contract gape worms unless placed on 

 the ground where chickens have contracted or scattered the disease. Earth 

 worms may carry the trouble. Gape worms are indicated by the frequent 

 gaping or gasping of the chicks for air. The old familiar horse hair loop 

 or the feather end dipped in turpentine will remove them. However, time 

 and chicks may be saved during the succeeding year by removing the 

 coops to a new lot, cultivating the old place and keeping the chicks from it. 

 The time required for land to disinfect itself of gape worms is not known. 

 Since robins and other birds may perpetuate them it is possible that a given 

 space may never be exactly safe. Some poultrymen by keeping the chicks 

 on a board floor for some time have avoided this trouble. 



SCALY-LEG. — Another parasitic disease caused by minute mites which 

 insert themselves under the scales covering the feet is called "scaly-leg." 

 While not particularly noticeable in early stages it is readily diagnosed by 

 the comparatively enormous roughening of the scales caused in the later 

 stages. Since it does not spread from fowl to fowl it should be treated 

 regularly until cured. The legs should be dipped in carbolized vaseline, 

 sweet oil, kerosene or washed with creoline dips. The oils act better than 

 water dips because they last on the legs longer, and thus draw out the 

 mites. If the dips are repeated the scales soften and the inflammation dis- 

 appears until feet that will seem beyond cure will again appear healthy 

 and comparatively smooth. 



SURGICAL TREATMENT.— Crop-bound is a condition in which the 

 crop becomes packed with food because of stoppage of its outlet by coarse 

 material. It it easily remedied by cutting into the crop at that part which 

 is on "top when the fowl stands. After emptying all its contents the raw 



