340 



POULTRY CULTURE 



advanced that treatment is useless or unprofitable. The general 

 symptoms most readily marked are weakness and inactivity, a 

 drooping attitude, and a dull color and dull expression of the head. 

 Diarrhea is present in many cases. 



Special symptoms plain to ordinary observation are head and 

 foot symptoms, and irregularities in the actions and in the dis- 

 charges of the birds. When proper allowance is made for paleness 

 associated with inactivity of the organs of reproduction, the color of 

 the comb is a fairly reliable index of health. A yellowish comb indi- 

 cates biliousness ; a pale comb is the sign of an anemic condition, 

 and suggests examination for symptoms of enteritis or tuberculosis, 

 or for lice ; a dark comb indicates a plethoric condition, defective cir- 

 culation, and sometimes congestion, as in bronchitis or pneumonia. 

 Yellow warts on the face and comb occur in chicken pox. Yellow- 

 ish-white, cheesy lumps about the eyes, nostrils, and corners of the 

 mouth are more likely to indicate roupy catarrh. A watery dis- 

 charge from the nostrils may be nothing more serious than a com- 

 mon cold. Neglected, such a cold may develop into roup, with 

 thicker discharge and perhaps accumulations of cheesy matter. 

 White or grayish patches inside the mouth, especially when the 

 odor is very offensive, indicate diphtheritic roup. Head symptoms 

 are particularly important, because so many of them have more than 

 local significance. Foot symptoms are direct symptoms of local 

 trouble, such as scaly leg, corns, and bumblefoot. To the lay ob- 

 server vent discharges are very unreliable symptoms, hardly to be 

 classed as special symptoms for him, though to a veterinary they 

 may be very useful. 



General treatment of disease. The practical and profitable way 

 for a poultry keeper to treat disease in his flocks is by general 

 salutary measures ; birds too far gone to respond to these are 

 rarely worth saving. Such local troubles as scaly leg, injuries like 

 frostbite, and combs damaged in fighting, may be given attention 

 in the case of individual birds that are particularly valuable, but for 

 the great majority of such cases the best thing to do is to remove 

 the cause or the bird from the cause and let nature work re- 

 covery. It is possible to cure a large proportion even of very serious 

 cases of sickness in poultry by giving good nursing with suitable 

 medicinal treatment, the nursing being the more important ; but 



