Diseases of the Liver 91 



crowded. The rich winter ration is continued after the 

 weather begins to get warm and less heating food is needed. 

 This combined with too Httle exercise and not enough 

 green food favor indigestion and the accompanying sluggish 

 action of gizzard and intestines. These are the immediate 

 causes of trouble with the liver. It is said that feeding too 

 much corn and barley is also responsible for much liver 

 trouble. 



Symptoms. — Mr. H. B. Green, ^ gives the following symp- 

 toms of hypertrophy of the liver. He believes this to 

 be only a stage in the fatty degeneration of this organ. 

 "The first sign that a fowl is tending towards fatty disease 

 of the liver is increase in weight. The comb, wattles and 

 face remain a bright red or take on a dull bluish tinge 

 from congestion. This sign of sluggish circulation tells of 

 full blood vessels, and explains how it is that apoplexy so 

 frequently supervenes at this period. The excrement is an 

 important symptom to note. It is generally at first semi- 

 liquid, of a dark yellow color, and evacuations are frequent. 

 Thirst is noticeable and a large quantity of water is drunk, 

 especially after feeding. The appetite remains good, al- 

 though the bird is capricious in what it eats. A post- 

 mortem examination of a fowl in this phase of the disease 

 will show a liver considerably enlarged, of a deep red color, 

 engorged with blood, shining and greasy as though it had 

 been soaked in oil, but fairly firm under the knife. The 

 intestines are laden with masses of fat, so also are the 

 mesentery, — or as it is termed by butchers, 'the leaf,' — the 

 ovary and oviduct." 



In the next stage "Diarrhea increases, the excrement 

 perhaps bloodstained or blackened by congealed clots ; the 

 face, comb and wattles become a darker hue or if jaundice 



1 Illustrated Poultry Record, 1909, p. 691. 



