260 



POULTRY— DISEASES AND REMEDIES. 



course, should be supplied with lime, and 

 the chickens should have free access to 

 pure water. After the gapes appear, the 

 cure is always doubtful; but crushed corn, 

 soaked in very strong alum-water, is also 

 a good remedy. 



Or, pills of sulphur, turpentine, and 

 wheat flour. 



Or, oil of turpentine, two drachms; 

 linseed oil, one ounce; or oil of turpentine, 

 two drachms, with flour enough to make 

 it into twenty pills. For twenty doses, 

 give every other day three or four pills, 

 allowing three hours to elapse between 

 each dose. 



Or, tobacco smoke. 



Or, gapes are not caused by lice, but 

 by parasitic worms, which exist in the 

 windpipe. They may be removed by 

 inserting a loop of horse-hair in the 

 throat, and withdrawing it with a twisting 

 motion, which detaches the worms and 

 brings them out. Gapes may be pre- 

 vented by changing the location of the 

 yards and ranges, and especially by 

 securing a supply of pure water. 



POULTRY, Roup.— There are no dis- 

 eases to which poultry are subject from 

 which we have suffered more than from 

 roup, catarrh, or swelled head, which we 

 consider one and the same disease. The 

 term roup is very indefinite, being applied 

 to very dissimilar disorders of poultry, 

 such as the obstruction of the rump 

 gland, the pip, and gapes, already de- 

 scribed, and to almost every sort of 

 catarrh, to which gallinaceous fowls are 

 much subject. But the chief disease to 

 which chickens and fowls are liable, 

 originates in changes of weather and 

 variations of temperature ; and when the 

 malady becomes confirmed, with running 

 at the nostrils and other well-known 

 symptoms, they are termed roupy. 



The word roup is supposed to be a 

 corruption of croup, to which children 

 are subject, and which often proves fatal. 

 It affects fowls of all ages, and is either 

 acute or chronic, beginning sometimes 

 suddenly and sometimes gradually, as 

 the result of neglected cords, stormy 

 weather, or damp lodgings. 



Symptoms — The most prominent symp- 

 toms of roup are at first identical with 

 those of severe catarrh; as difficult and 

 noisy breathing, a cough, a kind of rat- 

 tling in the throat, beginning with what 



is termed gapes. There is considerable 

 discharge from the nostril of fetid matter, 

 like the glanders in horses ; at first thin, 

 and limpid, but soon loses its transparent 

 character, becoming more or less opaque, 

 and of a very peculiar and offensive odor ; ; 

 froth appears in the inner corner of the 

 eye; the lids swell, and in severe cases 

 the eyeball is entirely concealed ; the nos- 

 trils are closed by the discharge drying 

 around them, and the eyelids are aggluti- 

 nated together; the diseased secretion 

 accumulating within the sides of the face, . 

 frequently swell to an extreme degree, 

 and the bird, unable to see or feed, suf- 

 fers from great depression, and sinks rap- 

 idly. 



As secondary symptoms, the appetite is 

 all but gone, except for drink ; the crop 

 feels hard to the touch, and the feathers 

 are staring, ruffled, and without a healthy 

 gloss. The fowl sits moping and wast- 

 ing in corners, always apparently in great 

 pain. In this stage of the disease, it is 

 supposed to be infectious; and whether so > 

 or not, it is certainly proper, for cleanli- 

 ness' sake, if nothing else, to separate the 

 diseased from the healthy ones, to pre- 

 vent the disorder from spreading through, 

 the yard. 



As fowls habitually breathe through, 

 the nose, the mouth being kept closed, it 

 follows that there is, even in the early 

 stages, some difficulty of breathing, and a. 

 distension of the loose skin below the 

 under jaw may be often noticed. The 

 frothy matter appearing at the corner of 

 the eye, results from the same cause ; the 

 air, stopped in its passage through the 

 nose, passes up the tear-duct, and pro- 

 duces the appearance of bubbles. 



With respect to the communication of 

 this disease, our experiments prove that 

 it is exceedingly contagious. It is, we 

 are inclined to think, frequently commu- 

 nicated by fowls drinking out of the same 

 vessels, as the discharge from the nostrils 

 of the sick bird contaminates the water 

 as it drinks. 



Treatment. — In general, we should 

 say, kill a roupy fowl at once, unless it is 

 valuable, as the risk of its contaminating 

 the whole yard is great. At all events, 

 let it be removed from the yard at once. 

 Combined with every remedy, cleanliness 

 is indispensable, as the first, the last, and 

 the best, without which all others are 



