CHAPTER XL 



POULTRY DISEASES AND THEIR REMEDIES 



If poultry were treated in a more natural manner, they would 

 not have very many ailments, but two-thirds of those who keep poul- 

 try do not have the least idea of how and what to feed nor what a 

 chicken can stand. For instance, I sold a boy a little bantam hen; 

 the day was very warm and I told him that it was not really fit to 

 take out so far, but he insisted he could take her safely. Now, 

 instead of going straight home, he went to some races, spent four 

 hours watching races and left the poor little hen tied on the handle 

 bars of his bicycle. She died a week later and then he thought I 

 would make his loss good. But he paid for his experience as we must 

 do if we are to build characters. If I had made that loss good it 

 would have been no lesson to the boy at all. Now he knows that 

 bantam hens won't stand any such treatment. 



Sickness and accidents are sometimes unavoidable, but not often. 

 Sometimes the birds of the aif carry disease around, and in such 

 cases we are helpless. 



Diseases may be classified as those of the head, throat and lungs. 

 This group of ailments includes colds, roup, canker croup, bronchitis, 

 diphtheretic roup and pneumonia. 



Colds. — In common colds where there is sneezing and running of 

 the eyes, the remedy is a quick physic at once and find the cause. 

 If it is caused by a draught of cold air coming through cracks, 

 remedy it at once; if it comes from climatic changes, give physic in 

 a little warm mash. The physic that serves the best is Epsom salts 

 or common coal oil. Allow about half a teaspoonful for each chicken 

 and see that it is well distributed in the dry mash before mixing with 

 water. In case oil is given, mix the oil with the quantity of water 

 to be used in the mash and mix well after. In the drinking water 

 put a few pellets of spongia, about one dozen pellets dissolved in 

 half a gallon of water will do. Spongia is the homeopathic remedy for 

 roup (croup in children or chickens), and it is a good one; humane 

 and quick to act if sufficient is used. The trouble is that it is high 

 in price, hard to obtain and by the time a person gets it his chickens 

 are often past cure. If kept on hand it will be found reliable and 

 easy to use. For the sure enough roup, the cold that has been neg- 

 lected until it has that roupy smell that one never forgets, spongia 

 will help by giving in the water to drink, but the head, nose and eyes 

 must be bathed in a disinfectant besides. 



