tnn BANTAM POWt. 



69 



treatment, fts they will soon recover. In severe cases, re- 

 move the patient to a coop, keep without food for twenty- 

 four hours, keep lime water before it instead of clear water. 

 After twenty-four hours give a little bread, soaked in boiled 

 milk. Let this be the only food until diarrhoea ceases. When 

 there are a number of cases in the flock, be sure there is 

 something wrong in food or drink. Search carefully for this 

 cause and remove it. 



CROP BOUND. 



This is quite common in Bantams, and if not properly 

 treated is very apt to prove fatal. The first symptom is a 

 consitant effort to swallow. The neck is stretched out, the 

 mouth opened, and the hen acts the way you often see a 

 little chick act when trying to get down a worm one size 

 larger than his gTiUet. 



The patient acts dumpish and stands in a peculiar posi- 

 tion with the breastbone pitched forward and down. He is 

 hungry and will keep eating until his crop is filled full and 

 as hard as a stone. If you suspect that you have a case of 

 crop bound place the subject where he cannot eat for twen- 

 ty-four hours and then feel his crop; if it is hard, or harder 

 than when he was shut up, your suspicions are confirmed. 



This trouble is caused by a plugging up of the outlet .of 

 the crop with some particle of food, such as a long, ribbon- 

 like piece of hay or grass. It may be caused by overeating, 

 as when fowls get access to the grain bin and then drink a 

 lot of water. The cause in this case is, probably, not so 

 much obstruction of the outlet as it is a paralysis of the 

 muscles of the crop from overdistension. This is rather an 

 unusual form of crop bound and Is merely mentioned to 

 point this moral; when you know your Bantams have enor- 

 mously overeaten, deprive them of water until their crops 

 are, at least, half empty. There is no way to prevent the 

 other or obstructive form. 



The treatment is the same in either case; empty the 

 crop. This can sometimes be done by pouring castor oil 

 down the throat and working the mass in the crop around 

 with the fingers. Try this about three times, two or three 

 hours apart. If by that time the mass is not softened it is 

 time to resort to surgery. Remove the feathers from a 

 space the size of a silver dollar directly over the crop. With 

 a clean, sharp knife make a cut one and one-half inches 

 long through the skin; pull the wound along about half an 

 inch and with a second cut go directly through into the 

 crop. With a spoon handle scoop out the contents thor- 

 oughly. Either see or feel the outlet of the crop, so as to 

 remove any obstruction there may be there. Wash the in- 

 side of the crop and the wound with warm water, to which 

 a little salt has been added. With a needleful of white silk 

 sew up the crop and then the skin. 



Give no food or drink for thirty-six hours; then give a 

 little bread soaked in milk. Feed carefully for a week; by 

 that time the little fellow will be all right, that is, supposing 

 the relief to have been given soon enough. For, if the mass 

 in the crop has fermented badly, as it will in three or four 

 days, it will have excited so much inflammation that the 

 operation does no good. Do not delay in a case of crop 

 bound, as twenty-four hours frequently make the difference 

 between saving and losing a valuable bird. 



LEG WEAKNESS. 



This is most common in growing chickens and is shown 

 by inability to stand up. The chicken appears hungry, and 

 all right in every way, except that it tries to get around on 

 Its hock joints instead of its feet. This occurs either while 

 the first feathers or the second are growing. It is due to 

 defective nutrition and is analogous to what we frequently 



term in children as growing too fast for their strength. The 

 remedy is to change the diet, giving more meat and cut Iwne, 

 something to make more muscle. Take care that the other 

 chicks do not prevent the weak one from getting any food 

 at all. With a little care these cases recover in a few days. 

 In the full grown Bantam a similar condition Is often 

 seen, although not so often as in the heavy breeds, and is 

 more apt to be due to rheumatism or cramp, the result of 

 dampness or exposure. The remedy in these cases is to 

 place the patient in a dry coop and feed well, at the same 

 time rubbing the legs well with any good liniment. 



SCALY LEGS. 



This is a most disgusting affection and its presence in a 

 flock is a sure sign of laziness or indifference ,on the pant of 

 the owner. It is caused by a parasite, and is, therefore, a 

 contagious disease. When it first appears the shanks and 

 toes become covered with a dry scaly substance which in- 

 creases quite fast until it forms crusts so thick as to obscure 

 entirely the original shape and color of the legs. It is most 

 common among the feathered legged varieties, and spreads 

 much faster in damp, filthy quarters than in clean, dry ones. 



The treatment is very simple, but is also very effective. 

 Apply thoroughly, with the fingers, some carbolized vaseline 

 to every part of the shanks and toes. Repeat every two 

 days until the legs are clean. Each time it is found that 

 considerable scale may be rubbed oft with the fingers, and 

 it is advisable to remove all that will come off without caus- 

 ing bleeding. In mild cases three applications is enough to 

 effect a cure. In severe ones it may take six or seven, and, 

 in such cases, it is well to repeat twice a month for three 

 or four months after the case is apparently cured, as it 

 otherwise is very liable to return. 



LICE. 



If you have had no experience with poultry you will 

 probably smile when you see lice classed among the diseases, 

 but after one or two broods have succumbed to their ravages, 

 and the grown fowls all look as if they were in the last 

 stages of consumption, you will admit that the little vermin 

 are worthy of the first place in the list of diseases. 



There are several varieties of lice which infest the hen 

 house. There is the common white or gray louse, which is 

 the largest and slicks to the fowl night and day. The same 

 variety is found on young chicks and is commonly called 

 the head louse because oftenest found on the head and fas- 

 tened to the skin like a leach. Then there is the red louse, 

 or red mite, which works only at night. During the day he 

 will be found under or on the roosting pole, or on the sides 

 of the house. He is bright red, round and rather smaller 

 than the head of a pin. Frequently these mites will congre- 

 gate on a part of the wall so thick that one would think the 

 wall was covered with fresh blood. 



There is also a brown louse, larger than the red and not 

 so large as the white. The habits of this are similar to both 

 the others, that is to say, many will leave the fowl in the 

 day time and be found in the house, but some of the more 

 greedy will keep at work day and night. This is the kind 

 that bothers the sitting hen the most. Sometimes she is 

 compelled to leave her eggs, and, in such instances, one 

 looking into the nest will see no eggs there, as they will 

 be completely covered with a mass of dirty brown lice. 



The symptoms produced by lice are unmistakable, where 

 one has once become acquainted with them. In a fowl there 

 is ruffled plumage, white comb, great uneasiness and emaci- 

 ation. In chicks there is a weakness and drooping, some- 

 times diarrhoea and a peculiar, characteristic look about the 

 bead, as if the beak had been pulled on and the head elon- 



