CRAMP IN YOUNG PHEASANTS. 137 



instant relief will follow this operation, since the trachea 

 may with certainty be cleared of all obstructions, but unfor- 

 tunately it requires some amount of medical and surgical 

 skill to administer the chloroform and perform the operation. 



The most effectual check upon the disease is the total 

 destruction of the parasites. If the dead bodies of the birds 

 be thrown away, the mature eggs in the gapeworms will not 

 have sustained any injury. Decomposition having set in, the 

 young embryos will sooner or later escape, migrate into the 

 soil or elsewhere, and ultimately find their way into the air- 

 passages of birds in the same manner as their parents did 

 before them. The diseased birds ought to be burnt if we 

 wish to avoid the spread of the disease. 



Since the publication of the early editions of this book, 

 some exceedingly important investigations into the nature of 

 the diseases of young pheasants have been made by Dr. E. 

 Klein. The first of these diseases is that known to keepers 

 under the name of " the cramps." This occasionally causes 

 great mortality amongst young birds, attacking them usually 

 during the second or third week. It is described by Dr. 

 Klein as commencing Avith lameness in one leg. The next 

 day the other becomes lame, and the bird sits motionless, and 

 Avhen made to move drags both limbs along the ground. 

 Death generally occurs on the third day. On examination 

 after death, the thigh-bone (the femur), or that of the leg 

 (the tibia), or both, will be found soft, and in advanced cases 

 broken, sometimes with great extravasation of blood into the 

 surrounding tissues. The fracture generally occurs near the 

 ends of the bone, whether that of the thigh or the leg. 

 Microscopic examination shows that the interior of the bone 

 is highly inflamed, the result of the presence of bacilli, which, 

 as in other infectious diseases, can be spread from one bird to 

 another. 



The treatment of this disease is very simple. The moment 

 it is recognised the young birds should be destroyed and 

 burned. AVlien this is acted on, at the beginning of the 



