152 Moulting. 



PIP, a dry scale on the tongue, is not a disease, but the symptom of some 

 disease, being only analogous to " a foul tongue" in human beings. Do not 

 crape the tongue, nor cut off the tip, but cure the roup, diarrhoea, bad 

 digestion, gapes, or whatever the disease may be, and the pip will disappear. 



ROUP is caused by exposure to excessive wet or very cold winds. It 

 begins with a slight hoarseness and catching of the breath as if from cold, 

 and terminates in an offensive discharge from the nostrils, froth in the 

 corners of the eyes, and swollen lids. It is very contagious. Separate the 

 fowl from the others, keep it warm, add some " Douglass Mixture" (see 

 " Moulting ") to its water daily, wash its head once or twice daily with tepid 

 water, feed it with meal, only mixed with hot ale instead of water, and 

 plenty of green food. Mr Wright advises half a grain of cayenne pepper 

 with half a grain of powdered allspice in a bolus of the meal, or one of 

 Baily's roup pills to be given daily. Mr. Tegetmeier recommends one grain, 

 of sulphate of copper daily. Another advises a spoonful of castor-oil at 

 once, and a few hours afterwards one of Baily's roup pills, and to take the 

 scale off the tongue, which can easily be done by holding the beak open with 

 your left hand, and removing the scale with the thumbnail of your right 

 hand ; with a pill every morning for a week. If not almost well in a week 

 it will be better to kill it. 



THE THRUSH may be cured by washing the tongue and mouth with borax 

 dissolved in tincture of myrrh and water. 



PARALYSIS generally affects the legs and renders the fowltmable to move. 

 It is chiefly caused by over-stimulating food. There is no known remedy 

 for this disease, and the fowl seldom if ever recovers. Although chiefly 

 affecting the legs of fowls, it is quite a different disease from LEO 

 WEAKNESS. 



VERTIGO results from too great a flow of blood to the head, and is gene- 

 rally caused by over-feeding. Pouring cold water upon the fowl's head, or 

 holding it under a tap for a few minutes, will check this complaint, and the 

 bird should then be purged by a dose of castor- oil or six grains of jalap. 



MOULTING. 



All birds, but especially old fowls, require more warmth and more 

 nourishing diet during this drain upon their system, and should roost in a 

 warm, sheltered, and properly-ventilated house, free from all draught. Do 

 not let them out early in the morning, if the weather is chilly, but feed them 

 under cover, and give them every morning warm, soft food, such as bread 

 and ale, oatmeal and milk, potatoes mashed up in pot-liquor, with a little 

 pepper and a little boiled meat, as liver, &c., cut small, and a little hemp- 

 seed with their grain at night. Give them in their water some iron or 

 " Douglass Mixture," which consists of one ounce of sulphate of iron and 

 one drachm of sulphuric acid dissolved in one quart of water; a teaspoon- 

 ful of the mixture is to be added to each pint of drinking water. This 

 chalybeate is an excellent tonic for weakly young chickens, and young birds 

 that are disposed to outgrow their strength. It increases their appetite, 

 improves the health, imparts strength, brightens the colour of the comb, 

 and increases the stamina of the birds 1 . When chickens droop and seem to 

 suffer as the feathers on the head grow, give them once a day meat minced 

 fine and a little canary-seed. 



