188 ENEMIES AND DISEASES OF POULTRY 



only safety against such ailments is perfect cleanliness, 

 protection from cold and damp, and proper feeding. 



Fowls that are attacked with looseness of the bowels 

 or diarrhea may be treated by separating them from 

 the rest of the flock, cutting off their supply of green 

 food, and giving them water to drink in which a tea- 

 spoonful of tincture of iron has been mixed in each 

 quart of water, feeding them warm mash composed of 

 either stale bread, ground oats, and wheat bran equal 

 parts, or of ground oats, wheat middlings, and wheat 

 bran equal parts, either to be moistened with hot milk 

 or hot water and seasoned with a teaspoonful of red 

 pepper to each quart of mash. 



Of recent years the scourge of white diarrhea has 

 spread throughout the world. Some persons claim that 

 nearly one-half of all the little chicks hatched are lost 

 through this ailment. Whether or not so large a per- 

 centage of all chicks hatched die from this disease, it 

 is a fact that entirely too many die in this way and 

 that nearly all of the little chicks that die of looseness 

 of the bowels have white diarrhea. The symptoms of 

 white diarrhea are unmistakable. It usually attacks 

 little chicks within the first week after they come from 

 the shell. They shiver, hang down their wings, close 

 their eyes, and stand about and peep in a most painful 

 manner, and the discharges from their bowels is like 

 a mixture of milk and lime. Other kinds of diarrhea 

 and looseness of the bowels may be caused by cold, 

 exposure to damp, or eating food that ferments in the 

 bowels. Diarrhea from these causes does not make 

 little chicks nearly so sick as does white diarrhea. 



The cure for all these troubles is care and manage- 

 ment. If little chicks are exposed to too much heat 

 under the brooder or are chilled at night under the 

 brooder, if they run out in the damp and wet and take 

 cold, or if any of them eat bad food they are almost 

 certain to be afflicted with looseness of the bowels. This 

 can be cured or prevented by avoiding the troubles that 

 cause the ailment and by a system of perfect sanitation 



