BOWEL TROUBLE IN CHICKS 175 



during very hot days bring about conditions which 

 tend toward breeding this disease, and assist 

 materially in spreading it more rapidly. 



Bowel trouble in most cases is nothing more or 

 less than acute intestinal indigestion caused by the 

 inability of the intestinal organ to properly digest 

 the foods, and the thus indigested food acting as an 

 irritant results in diarrhoea. 



Impure drinking water is one of the causes of this 

 disease. Chicks must have clean, pure water; it 

 is just as important to them as it is to human 

 beings. Drinking fountains which cannot be easily 

 cleaned and scoured should never be used at any 

 time. Vessels into which chicks can step should 

 also be avoided. During warm weather fresh water 

 should be supplied several times during the day, 

 and such water should be protected from exposure 

 to the sun, and the scratchings of the litter. 



Chilling is one of the common causes for bowel 

 trouble. During cold weather chicks require more 

 heat than in warmer weather. When the outside 

 temperature is below the 50 degree mark there is 

 little danger of overheating the brooder chicks, and 

 the flock will not be much affected at a tempera- 

 ture even as high as 112 to 115 degrees, which is 

 9 and 12 degrees higher than that of an incubator 

 during its operation. But on the other hand, if 

 the outside temperature is above the 70 mark, long 

 exposure to a temperature of over 100 degrees is 



