The Feather's Practical Pigeon Book 



sudden changes in temperature or exposure to draughts, 

 and is highly contagious. Its symptoms are sneezing, 

 a watery discharge from eyes and nostrils, and con- 

 siderable fever. If not attended to at once, in the course 

 of a day or so the discharge from the nostrils thickens, 

 and if the bird is examined the slit in the roof of the 

 mouth will be found filled with a thick jelly-like mucus, 

 sometimes streaked with blood and minute spots of 

 canker. The throat is very much congested, and the 

 discharge from the eyes has become thick and sticky. 

 If still neglected the discharge from the nostrils becomes 

 faetid and filled with cheese-like matter, one or the other 

 of the eyes becomes involved (rarely both) and the eye- 

 ball is entirely eaten away and its place filled with this 

 cheesy substance. When it reaches this stage the suf- 

 ferer might as well be killed, for while I have known 

 them to recover they are never afterwards desirable as 

 breeding birds. In your daily visits to your birds 

 should you notice any of them showing symptoms of 

 cold, separate them at once, put them in a dry, warm 

 place, and dissolve in water six pillules of the homeo- 

 pathic remedy, spongia,. Put this in their drinking-cup, 

 and you will soon realize its good effects. Should the 

 whole loft be affected at once, as is sometimes the case 

 during a cold storm in the fall of the year, dissolve from 

 one to six dozen of the pillules in water according to the 

 number of birds, and place this in the general drink- 

 ing-water vessel. This will be found to be a sovereign 

 .remedy surpassing anything else that can be recom- 

 mended, it may be necessary in some cases to wash 

 both eyes and nostrils in warm tea or water to remove 

 the thickened matter collected there. Renew the drink- 

 ing-water ev.ery other day. Some cases may prove more 

 obstinate than others, but careful attention and the con- 



127 



