DISEASE AMONG SWINE AND OTHER DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 11 



separate the fowls immediately upon discovering the least symptom, snch as coughing, 

 loud breathing, or a " wet beak." Fowls become contaminated much sooner if fed 

 dough, as the dough that adheres to the beak will bo picked off by others. Tho 

 disease will also be communicated by drinking from tho same vessel. The germs of 

 the disease will float on the water and soon infect all. 



I never knew of a case of roup in a flock that roosted in trees. If a flock (part of 

 whoso numbers have the roup) are -at liberty, aud are fed Avith corn scattered on tho 

 ground, not in the immediate vicinity of their pens, and should drink from a running 

 stream of water, there need be but little to fear even if some of them should contract 

 the disease ; yet the affected cases should be separated, their roosting places thoroughly 

 whitewashed^ and all excrement removed. The f iitnes of burning tar during the night 

 prove quite efficacious, if persisted in three nights in successiou. Sulphate of irou 

 (an ounce to one gallon of drinking-water) is the best remedy. 



Fowls are most susceptible to diseases during the moltiug-season, or when the first 

 snow-storms occur. Roup will soou be brought on by roosting in low and damp apart- 

 ments during the winter months. Farmers who allow their fowls to roost high in 

 their barns are seldom troubled by this malady. 



Sulphur and lard rubbed on the heads of young chicks for the purpose of killing 

 lice, though effective in destroying this pest, will soon bring on ronp — sore eyes 

 especially. I have had a dozen little chicks moping around with their eyes closed, 

 and if they had not been fed by hand would soon have died of starvation. If roosting- 

 houses become infested with lice, whitewash is the sovereign remedy, for a flock of 

 poultry covered by these pests will, sooner or later, take rouj) aud its concomitant 

 troubles. 



Mr. Ealph W. Mills, Webster Groves, Mo., breeder of poultry, says : 



My experience with fowls extends through a period of eight consecutive years, 

 prefaced by a familiarity with this portion of the feathered race during boyhood. I 

 have bred successfully, and in the order named, the varieties classed as games — White 

 Crested, White Polish, Light Brahmas, Bufl' Cochins, White Booted Bantams, Gold 

 Laced Sebrights, Partridge Cochins, Black Breasted Red Game Bantams, Plymouth 

 Rocks, and Silver Spangled Hamburgs — all being of the kind poijularly termed " fancy 

 fowls." 



As regards diseases affecting fowls coming under my observation, they are chiefly 

 two in number, viz., cholera and roup ; and what may prove as great a scourge as either, 

 the plague of lice. 



Cholera is in its symptoms not unlike the disease similarly named in the human dis- 

 ease. It is first observed in the character of the droppings, green in color, growing 

 thinner, clearer, and more liquid with each subsequent evacuation, until, utterly weak- 

 ened and prostrate, in a course of from twelve to forty-eight hours' duration, the fowl 

 succumbs to death. During the attack great thirst is manifested, but indifference to 

 food. I have been unable to learn thatany person has ever positively determined the 

 cause of this disease. My own opinion is that it is a generated poison (atmospheric), 

 not unlike malaria, and dependent for its development upon certain favoring con- 

 ditions in certain localities at certain seasons. It is contagious in some degree ; and 

 fowls having the disease should be promptly separated from those not affected, and 

 those dying of it should be carefullj^ buried at once, or burnt with brush or litter, to 

 obviate tlie danger of infection. 



I have but little faith and have had but indifferent success in "doctoriug " the dis- 

 ease with anything in the nature of drugs given in doses. Four cases in five will result 

 fatally. Dry, warm, clean, well-ventilated quarters, other than those lately occupied 

 by the sick fowls, a complete change in the food olfared and in the order of feeding, 

 freely incorporating ground red or black pepper in all soft food given, with the "Doug- 

 lass mixture" jjut in all the water placed before them to drink, will accomplish, to- 

 gether with an occasional disinfection of their premises by the use of carbolic acid in 

 solution, and fumigation of their houses with roll brimstone and rosin placed on live 

 coals, about all that can be done to cure and eradicate the disease. 



Reference is made in this connection to the " Douglass mixture," a tonic in general 

 use among experienced poultrymen everywhere, the formula of which originated with 

 Mr. John Douglass, of the Walesley Aviaries, England. It is as follows: 1 pound sul- 

 phate of iron, 1 ounce sulphuric acid, 1 gallon water. Give a teaspoonful in each ijint 

 of water placed before the fowls to drink occasionallj' in health as a preventive; 

 frequently in disease as a corrective. It is inexpensive and very efficacious. Upon 

 the reasonable hypothesis that " prevention is better than cure," the suggestion is 

 made that so far as they can be known, the scants of fowls should be supplied in order 

 to keep them in health. Gravel, lime, grass, vegetable food, insects or animal food, 

 liberty, fresh clean water, regularity in feeding, &c., are all essential to the healthful- 

 ness of domestic poultry. 



The disease second in order, viz., roup, is well known, and, in its incipiency, can be 

 successfully treated. It is the result of a cold, attacking tho head ; is similar to nasal 



