264 



POULTRY— DISEASES AND REMEDIES. 



eis, chopped up, which they ate eagerly, 

 and digested freely. By adding milk to 

 the food, they began to lay, and ceased 

 plucking out each other's feathers. He 

 concludes, that this proceeding arose from 

 the desire of the hens for azote food. 



POULTRY, White Comb "This dis- 

 ease," say the authors of the "Poultry 

 Book," "makes its first appearance in the 

 form of small white spots on one or both 

 sides of the comb of -the cock, which are 

 so thickly clustered together as to be 

 sometimes mistaken for a sprinkling of 

 meal or other white powder. It seems 

 to be of a scorbutic, or leprous nature — 

 a form of disease to which all animals 

 of eastern origin are particularly liable. 

 It is a disease to which the Shanghai is 

 constitutionally subject ; although we have 

 heard of its existence in birds exposed to 

 irregular diet and want of cleanliness. 

 The disease should be attacked as soon 

 as it makes its appearance. The conse- 

 quences of neglect are related in the fol- 

 lowing communication, with the appro- 

 priate remedy: 



"The disease is not confined to the 

 combs only, but spreads itself down the 

 neck, both in front and back, and takes 

 off all the feathers as far as it goes, leav- 

 ing the stumps. I saw a bird very lately, 

 with his neck and breast entirely stripped 

 of feathers, but the stumps all left, so 

 that no hope of their return can be en- 

 tertained until the time of moulting. 



"Now to the remaining question, 'How 

 can it be cured?' By applying cocoa nut 

 oil and turmeric. This simple remedy has* 

 been tried with perfect success. No oth- 

 er oil but that of the cocoa nut seems to 

 answer the purpose. The proportions 

 are about a quarter of an ounce of turme- 

 ric powder to one ounce of cocoa nut 

 oil. The latter, at an ordinary tempera- 

 ture, is solid, and very much resembles 

 spermaceti; but it easily blends with the 

 turmeric, and forms a yellow ointment. 

 Three or four applications, with a day's 

 interval between each, will usually be 

 found effectual." 



M. Tegetmeier suggests the separation 

 of the sick bird, a plain, unstimulating, 

 wholesome diet — say of oatmeal and wa- 

 ter, with a supply of green vegetables — 

 and the administration of some altera- 

 tive medicine: as flour of sulphur ten 

 grains, and calomel one grain, given ev- 



ery other night ; or a three-grain Plum- 

 mer's pill might be given instead. The 

 plumage will not often reappear until 

 next moulting time. 



POULTRY, Vermin, Lice.— The whole 

 feathered tribe seem to be peculiarly lia- 

 ble to be infected with lice; and there 

 have been instances where fowls have 

 been so covered in this loathsome man- 

 ner, that the natural color of the feathers 

 has been undistinguishable. 



Mascall says, "They get them in scrap- 

 ing abroad among foul straw, or on dung- 

 hills, or when they sit in nests not made 

 clean, or in the hen-house, by their dung 

 lying long there, which corrupts their 

 bodies and breeds lice and fleas." 



The presence of vermin is not only an- 

 noying to poultry, but materially inter- 

 feres with their growth, and prevents their 

 fattening. In trifling cases, no particular 

 attention is requisite ; but when the cases 

 are bad, the fowls should be removed from 

 the rest. 



A writer in the Cultivator recommends 

 mixing sulphur with Indian-meal and wa- 

 ter, and feed in the proportion of one 

 pound of sulphur to twenty-four fowls, in 

 two parcels, a few days apart. It is said 

 this will completely exterminate the lice, 

 and produce a remarkably healthy and 

 glossy appearance in the fowls. Strew 

 oil-meal about the floor, in the nests, and 

 against the rafters and sides of the build- 

 ings. Lining the nests infected with lice 

 with tobacco stems will expel them not 

 only from the nests but from the body of 

 the fowl. Another writer in the same 

 paper says, "Lice may be destroyed by 

 placing lard beneath the wing and on the 

 back of the chicken." Sulphur, thor- 

 oughly dusted into the roots of the feath- 

 ers, and spread over the entire skin, if 

 used twice or thrice at intervals of a few 

 days, is a certain cure. But the best 

 remedy we have ever found is cleanliness 

 in their roosting places and nests, which 

 should be often whitewashed with hot 

 lime-water, and to place plenty of slack- 

 ed lime, dry ashes and sand, well mixed, 

 where they can roll and bathe, by which 

 means they will soon free themselves of 

 the pests. 



Hens, while hatching, are very apt to 

 become infested with lice; so much so 

 that they are often driven from the nest. 

 We have known the eggs covered, and 



