59 



crease in size and spread to other parts of the throat until 

 they show outside around the mouth, and the bird chokes 

 to death. 



When canker appears in a squab only and the parent 

 birds show no signs of it, the best thing to do is to kill the 

 squab, disinfect the loft and stay the disease in this way. 

 It may be cured by using a little patience, unless it has 

 gone too far before it is discovered. 



Remove the sick bird from the loft and keep it in some 

 place not adjacent to the pigeon house. Take a small sharp 

 splinter of wood, such as a sharpened match, and scrape 

 ■ the cankers off, doing this as gently as possible. This will 

 leave a raw red spot, which should be gently swabbed with 

 a solution of peroxide of hydrogen and water, half and 

 half. The solution will foam as if it were boiling, but it 

 is entirely painless and does not hurt the bird in the least. 

 Repeat the swabbing, putting on plenty of the solution,, 

 until it ceases to foam. It does not matter if a little of the 

 solution goes down the throat of the bird, as it is perfectly 

 harmless when swallowed by man, beast or bird, and is the 

 best germicide known, being non-poisonous and odorless. 

 I Some good authorities recommend painting the cankers 

 with lemon juice and water and putting a piece of alum 

 in the drinking water, but we prefer the peroxide of hydro- 

 gen treatment. Do not return a bird to the loft until it 

 is entirely well, and always disinfect the loft when a case 

 of canker is found in it. Direction? for disinfecting are 

 given further on in this chapter. 



