Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment. 957 



Usually the animals appear to be in good health, only of the 

 lambs a few perish, exceptionally many (Moussu, Richard), 

 because wool balls have formed in a compartment of the stomach 

 and occlude the openings of some of the compartments or the 

 lumen of the intestine. In older sheep at most slight nutritional 

 disturbances are observed, although in exceptional cases symp- 

 toms of anemia and emaciation may occur. 



Diagnosis. The fact that wool eating is indulged in pref- 

 erably, and at first exclusively, in day time and in the intervals 

 between feeding, and also the fact that the animals gnaw only 

 the wool of their fellows, never their own, is sufficient to dis- 

 tinguish this vice from other diseases which are accompanied 

 with itching and also from trembling disease. 



Treatment. The habit can usually be removed by isolating 

 the wool eaters as well as their victims. It is advisable, even in 

 winter, to turn the animals out of doors for a certain time 

 during the day, when the weather conditions permit it; more- 

 over it is necessary to provide proper food and a sufficient min- 

 eral content of the food. If the ewes give little milk, the lambs 

 should receive cow's milk to make up the deficiency. Lemke 

 obtained excellent results from the subcutaneous administration 

 of apomorphine hydrochloride (0.1-0.2 grn., a dose for three 

 days). 



Literature. Korte, Tierzucht, 1892. 218. — Lemke, D. Z. f. Tm., 1882. 

 VIII. 102. 



Feather Eating and Feather Pulling in Birds. This vice is ob- 

 served most frequently in caged birds, especially in parrots and canaries, 

 but not infrequently also in domestic fowls, especially in chickens. 



The causes of feather eating are probably various. Klee considers 

 as the most frequent cause the deficiency in certain nutritive substances 

 in the body, which is due to one-sided feeding of animals which are at 

 the same time confined permanently in narrow quarters, so that they 

 have no opportunity of picking up insects and worms, chalk or greens. 

 Other authors take feather eating to be mainly a bad habit originating 

 in play or in tedium, when the animals have but little opportunity 

 to move about in the open air, and although their food is unobjec- 

 tionable. Feather eating may also develop in consequence of itching 

 skin diseases and owing to the itching sensation when the young feathers 

 break through during moulting (Klee). In this manner the feather 

 eating which occurs, although rarely, in well-kept fowls may be ex- 

 plained. 



Symptoms. In feather pulling the animals pull out either their 

 own feathers or those of their fellows. Among chickens the most 

 beautiful and valuable laying hens often first acquire this bad habit. 

 At first only occasionally isolated feathers are pulled out, but later 

 even the newly growing feathers are torn out so that the body becomes 

 disfigured by the bald spots which are produced. 



