420 THE VETERINARY DOCTOR. 
symptoms. The inexperienced fancier is prone to suspect the existence of 
a disease, and then quickly decide that it is present in a given case, because 
he finds one or two symptoms which are known to attend it, though a fur- 
ther investigation might detect others which would show that another and. 
perhaps quite different complaint was at hand. 
HOARSENESS.—COLD.—CATARRH. 
« ASTHMA.” 
floarseness, or cold in the head, quite frequently manifests itself in 
song birds, and only less so in talking birds. It arises from draughts, 
too cold drink and baths, bad seed, and excessive singing or talking. When 
the first two are the cause, keep the bird in a warm, very moist atmosphere, 
both day and night, deprive it of the bath, give warmer water for the drink, 
and feed lettuce seed. If bad or spoiled seed be the source of the trouble, 
change to those which are good. If too much singing or talking is the 
cause, put the bird in a dark room to shut out all light, and thus stop the use 
of the voice entirely for some time; but the bird must be kept warm. 
Catarrh is often caused by draughts of air and too cold baths. The 
head becomes hot, the nostrils clogged, and the breathing obstructed. If a 
soft feather be dipped into warm salt-water and gently passed up the nostril, 
the bird being kept warm for some time, it will be a sufficient treatment. 
Parrots and other birds that will bite should be covered with some fabric be- 
fore treatment, to protect the operator and prevent resistance from the claws. 
Asthma is a term that is often improperly applied to cases cf cold and 
catarrh. Birds do not have anything that can in any true sense be called 
asthma. The chest is sometimes by nature too narrow, and thus gives rise 
to a condition of the voice which some call asthma, but that is incurable. 
CONSUMPTION OF THE THROAT AND CHEST. 
T,he special symptoms of consumption of the ¢hroat are a frequent 
cough, roughness of the voice, often a failure to take food, either from loss 
of appetite or from pain in swallowing, attacks of fever followed by shiver- 
ing being more or less regular. As treatment, keep the bird in a very 
warm atmosphere, give a little piece of pork and a tea of speedwell (weak 
for small singing birds; strong for parrots, the thrush family, and large 
birds in general). This will usually effect a cure in four or five days. 
If the disease is allowed to run four or five months it will be incurable; 
hence the importance of early attention and prompt treatment. 
The digtinctive feature of consumption of the chest or lungs is a 
tubercular deposit in the chest, liver and bowels. The first symptoms are 
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