5S 



TURKEYS— THEIR CARE AND MANAGEMENT 



CROP BOUND. 



In the early spring the trouble most to be dreaded with 

 turkeys is crop bound, caused from eating dry grass. No 

 one can prevent this unless they have green fields or grain 

 for them to run in, rye or wheat fields. Even then some- 

 times they will fill their crops with the dry grass, which 

 forms a hard ball in the crop and unless it can be made to 

 pass, it will kill the fowl. Sometimes it will pass out 

 after a while without any treatment. Some recommend 

 cutting the crop, taking the substance out and sewing up the 

 crop, and they say it never fails to cure. This may be 

 true with experts at the business, but with me it is a 

 total failure. I tried it and thought it was a success, but 

 several weeks afterward I discovered that the crops had, 

 never grown together where they were cut open and the 

 thread rotted out, so they died. I have lost some of the 

 finest turkeys I ever owned from this trouble and have cured 

 others seemingly as bad off. 



I have not found an infallible cure and the most ef- 

 fectual cure I have found is very tedious. I give the tur- 

 key a dose of castor oil or Epsom salts as soon as I find it 

 has the trouble. I hold it and pour all the water into the 

 crop I think it safe to give and I also put a tablespoonful 

 of mica crystal grit in some soft food, make it in long 

 rolls and put down the throat. Turkeys are easily choked 

 and unless the food is made in long, slender rolls, they are 

 liable to choke. The reason I put the. grit in the food is 

 that it is liable to go down the wind pipe if poured into the 

 mouth alone. Then I very gently get hold of the ball in the 

 crop from the outside and work it with both hands, having 

 someone else hold the turkey. I can generally soften the 

 ball very perceptibly the first time I treat the turkey. The 

 grit in the food gets into the softened parts and helps divide 

 the ball, the oil takes aii that it is possible to get out of the 

 crop, out of the system so that it does not clog in the giz- 

 zard, as it :s liab'e to do if not worked off immediately. 

 Tne working must be very gently done, as it bruises the 

 crop. I repeat this process every morning at first and give 

 plenty of soft food and grit during the day. 



If I discover, as is often the case, that the turkey is 

 getting weak, I give a two-grain capsule of quinine every 

 morning. This increases the appetite and gives strength 

 to the bird. I give plenty of onions in the food. The treat- 

 ment must be kept up until all the ball has entirely passed 

 out of the system. 1 do not give the oil more than once a 

 week after the first few days. 



One of the best toms I ever owned, a full brother to 

 '•Champ Clark," who scored from 97 to 98 by every judge 

 wno saw him, was crop bound, and as I had sold "Champ 

 Clark" I was anxious to save the brother, which I consid- 

 ered just as good. I thought he was entirely cured, and 

 he was to all appearances well. He had gained flesh and 

 was as hearty as any bird on the place. - 1 fed him at night 

 and noticed how well he looked. The next morning I 

 found him dead under the roost. He weighed forty pounds 

 and of course looked finer after death than I had considered 

 him in life. My only consolation was that he had waited 

 until after the breeding season was almost over before he 

 died. 



On examination I found that a ball (not a very large 

 one, either) of dried grass had lodged in the vent, which 

 prevented anything from passing, and this caused his death. 

 He had been from under treatment about two months and I 

 believed if I had continued the oil once a week he would 

 have lived. 



Once I noticed a turkey with the same symptoms, but 



all my treatment availed nothing and he died. I examined 

 him and found the gizzard packed with dry grass and so 

 nothing could have saved him. 



"My turkeys are affected with what I call pendant crop. 

 The crops hang down like a bag, sometimes low enough 

 to interfere with walking and is filled with dark liquid. The 

 turkeys eat. but are pale about the head. "What shall I do 

 for them?" 



Give them a teaspoonful of baking powder; soda will 

 not do. This is a dose for one old turkey. I do not find 

 the baking powder an infallible cure, but it is the best 

 thing I have tried. Two doses usually cure. Keep the tur- 

 key inclosed and do not feed until the powder has been in 

 the crop an hour or two; then give soft food, wheat bread 

 made into long rolls, and put down the throat. The roll 

 must not be very large. Do not give any water until the 

 liquid has passed out of the crop. A little salt mixed in 

 the food will assist in carrying the impurities out of the 

 system. Epsom salts are better than oil for crop-bound 

 fowls. You will have to be very careful to keep water from 

 them until they have entirely recovered, or the crop will 

 "refill and the second attack is always worse or more stub- 

 born than the first. It is very unusual for this trouble to 

 arise in summer. It is prevalent during the latter part of 

 winter and early spring. 



CHOLERA. 



The cry of cholera among turkeys comes to me from 

 many persons, and these are not confined to a given local- 

 ity or state. From Mississippi, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, 

 Iowa and many other states I have received letters reporting 

 cholera among turkeys and often they say there are no 

 symptoms of the trouble among the chickens. The fact 

 that the turkeys linger for days and sometimes even weeks 

 is one reason for believing it is not cholera. Another is 

 that in many instances the chickens and turkeys are in the 

 same yard and the chickens are not affected; then again, 

 about the only symptom common to all inquiries is that 

 the droppings are a yellowish green. Some describe the 

 heads as black, saying they mope around and will not eat. 

 Others say the head is red to the last and they eat up to 

 a few minutes before they are seized with an attack like 

 convulsions, and still others say they have puffs under the 

 eyes, while another flock has a white substance floating 

 over the eye. 



It is a fact that almost any disease of a turkey will 

 cause the dropping to become yellowish green, showing that 

 disease in turkeys, like disease in the human family, sooner 

 or later affects the digestive organs. 



Often indigestion is the cause of the trouble. I am 

 not quite positively certain that I ever had a genuine case 

 of cholera in my yards, though 1 well remember when I 

 thought every chicken or turkey that died had it. 



I have been informed by one of the R. P. J. correspon- 

 dents that there is a much larger per cent of deaths from 

 what is known as black head than from cholera, and that it 

 is infectious. He says what has often been pronounced 

 cholera is black head. He also informs me there is abso- 

 lutely no remedy for it which can be relied upon to be even 

 comparatively a cure, and that the cause is unknown. This 

 he wrote me some time since. He said that Lee's Oer- 

 mozone is the best remedy known to him. I had some ex- 

 perience with the trouble in the flock of a neighbor, and 

 I decided it was caused from overfeeding while young, and 

 then turning them out without any food; at least I found 

 when I examined after death that the liver was perfectly 

 soft and the gizzard twice the size it should have been. 



I find many persons use a great deal of red or cayenne 



