1220 rvrLOPEDTA of live stock and complete stock doctor. 



Cait.se of the trouble. — This comes from certain small worms that are 

 picked up by the young turkeys in places that have become infested with 

 them. Some believe that the angleworm is the cause of the spreading of 

 gapes, and it probably is one of the causes. It is possible for the angle- 

 worm or other worms to be infested by gape worms, and thus, when eaten, 

 to cause the gapes in young chickens and turkeys. Whenever the ground 

 is infested with the gapeworm eggs they may readily infest all the angle- 

 worms in the same soil, and the eating of these may cause the infestation 

 of the young poults. 



Treatmeiit. — Many remedies are recommended for this ailment, few of 

 which have ever proven of much advantage. A feather or a twisted horse 

 hair may be introduced into the windpipe for the removal of the gape- 

 worms. Some recommend the feeding of finely chopped garlic and of 

 turpentine in the mash, while others suggest the uiixing of a teaspoonful 

 of naphtha or benzine in enough mixed food for a dozen poults. The 

 theory of the use of these remedies is that the fumes from the turpentine 

 or the benzine will pass through the entire body and into the wind])i])e 

 and destroy the gapeworm. 



These remedies are known to have destroyed as well as to have cured, 

 and great precaution must be observed in their administration ; try them 

 on a few at a time and do not risk the destruction of the whole flock. An- 

 other remedy is to place the ailing chicks in a box over which has been 

 stretched some cheese cloth; take some very dry air-slaked lime and sift it 

 down onto the poults or chicks through the cheese cloth ; this fine dust 

 will penetrate the nostrils and throat and cause a violent coughing and 

 sneezing, which tends to dislodge the gapeworms and give relief. It is, 

 however, a dangerous remedy which should l)e cautiously used rather as 

 an experiment than as an absolute cure. 



Prevention. — No saying could be more truly applied to this ailment 

 than "a pound of prevention is worth a ton of cure," and cleanliness is the 

 only sure preventive of gapes. Where the ground has become infested, a 

 very thin coating of slake lime should be scattered all over it early in the 

 spring before the frost is out of the ground and allowed to lie there until 

 the frost disappears, leaving the ground almost dry ; then take a hoe and 

 scrape off all the lime and one-half inch of the soil, cart it away, and bury 

 it at least four feet under ground. 



Another plan is to sprinkle the soil with water into which has been 

 mixed some sulphuric acid; after twenty-four horn's cover the surface with 

 lime and turn the soil under with a plow. A surer and better way than 

 this is to remove your poultry plant to an entirely new part of the farm 

 where there is no danger of infestation, then spread a coating of lime over 

 the infested land and plow it under and cultivate it for a year or two. 



Examinations made by opening the windpipes of dressed turkeys during 

 thf winter have frequently revealed the presence of two, three, or four 



