CHAPTER X. 



PIGEONS' AILMENTS. 



Canker a Filth Disease which Makes its Appearance in Nasty, 

 Cramped and Crowded Quarters — It is a Captivity Disease 

 and a Sure Cure for it is to Turn the Bird Loose to Get a 

 Change of Food and Plenty of Exercise — A Flock Supplied 

 with Pure Food and Clean Water Never will be Sick — 

 Canker is Not Epidemic — It does Not Pay to Dose a 

 Sick Pigeon, Better Turn it Out to Get Well. 



The principal ailment met with by the squab breeder is 

 canker. This ailment is a puzzle to some breeders and they 

 are alarmed when it makes an appearance in their flock, as 

 it does if the feed is poor or sour, the water dirty, or the squab 

 house filthy. The advice which they give when they find a 

 cankered bird is, "Kill it." That is the advice we used to 

 give at first, but now we know better. First, what is canker? 

 It is a disease of which you know the cause (filth, poor feed or 

 dirty water) and whose symptoms you see in the form of a 

 cheesy-like deposit in the mouth of the pigeon, and breaking 

 out around the bill. Catch the pigeon, hold it in your lap 

 and force open its bill and you will see a yellowish patch or 

 patches in the mouth, and the mouth will usually be filled 

 with a yellowish deposit which smells bad. The disease is 

 not serious. The trouble lies with the feed and the filth and 

 that is what spreads the same symptoms from one pigeon to 

 another. A case of canker in your flock should be a warning 

 to you that the feed or water is wrong, or that you 

 have a fllthy house. Do not get alarmed and kill the bird. 

 Catch the affected pigeon, carry it out of your flying pen 

 and squab house and throw it into the air. The bird may 

 fly away and lose itself, and if it does you are out one pigeon 

 just as if you had killed it. The chances are, however, as in 

 the case of any sick animal, that it will linger around home. 

 Now you will be surprised to see how quickly that pigeon's 

 health will improve. Not having a steady supply of food 

 before it, it will have to hustle for a living, and this exercise 

 and the change of living, and the scanty living, will effect the 



89 



