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 er 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 eof 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 
patcn or patches in the mouth, and the mouth will usually be filled with 
ua 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 
sane symptoms from one pigeon to another. A case of canker in your 
flock should be a warning to you that the feed is wrong or water is 
wrong, or that you have a filthy house. Do not get alarmed and kill the 
bird. Catch the affected pigeon and 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 quick that 
pigeon’s health will improve. Not having a steady supply of food before 
it, it wili have to hustle for a living, and this exercise and the change of 
living, anc the scanty living, will effect the cure. It will get more fresh 
air, and a great deal more exercise, and more sun, than it would get if 
left in company with the other birds. In about a week you will notice 
that it will hold its bill tighter, and if there is a sore on the outside of 
the bill you will see this sore dry up. In two weeks the chances are 
that the yellowish deposit on the interior of the mouth will be entirely 
gone. The pigeon will hover around the other pigeons. It will fly to the 
outside of the netting and look at its fellows. Place a dish on the ground 
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