Poisons 85 



comb, beak and tongue. The treatment is to give strong 

 stimulants such as "brandy, coffee, camphor or quinine." 



Fowls are occasionally injured by eating the leaves of 

 poisonous plants. The sense of taste, however, protects the 

 birds in most cases. Mr. H. B. Green ^ says in this con- 

 nection : " Woodlands and fields abound in poisonous plants, 

 and yet it is seldom, except in the case of birds that have 

 been starved of green food and have become ravenous for 

 it, that fowls ever succumb to vegetable poisons as thus 

 obtained. Protection apparently lies in the fact that un- 

 desirable plants have repulsive flavors. Especially in sub- 

 urban poultry keeping, danger arises when flower borders 

 are weeded, seedlings thinned out, and plant rubbish swept 

 up, if the resulting collection is thoughtlessly given to fowls 

 in confined runs. Such birds are generally always ready for 

 green food in any form and in their eagerness to satiate the 

 craving the bad is often taken in with the good." 



Ptomaine Poisoning 



Fowls are subject to ptomaine poisoning. The cause of 

 this is, of course, feeding spoiled or decayed food. Cases of 

 this trouble are more frequent in small flocks where table 

 waste is fed to a comparatively few birds. 



Diagnosis. — The more common symptoms of ptomaine 

 poisoning in fowls are : at first an unsteady gait showing 

 lack of control (partial paralysis) of the muscles. If the 

 birds are badly poisoned, prostration comes quickly. The 

 birds lie in a relaxed condition with head and neck curled 

 towards the breast. The comb turns black. In some cases 

 there is a diarrheal discharge, occasionally bloody. Death 

 usually occurs in a short time. In some respects the symp- 



1 Illus. Poultry Record, Vol. I, p. 689. 



