POULTRY DISEASES AND THEIR TREATMENT. 4I 



most important step to take. It is useless to spend valuable 

 time in doctoring sick birds while the conditions which gave 

 rise to the trouble are still present. In bacterial enteritis sick 

 birds should be removed from the flock as soon as noticed. 

 Houses and runs should be cleaned up and disinfected. Drink- 

 ing vessels and food troughs should be scalded daily. Potas- 

 sium permanganate should be used in the drinking water (cf. 

 p. 16) . Mix powdered charcoal with the mash. Feed less bran 

 and more middlings in the mash. Do not feed too heavily. 



After attending to the above hygienic measures the birds 

 should be given a good physic. A teaspoonful of Epsom salts 

 to each fowl, dissolved in water and mixed in the mash, is the 

 most convenient way of treating a large number of birds. For 

 medical treatment Salmon recommends one of the following : 



"Subnitrate of bismuth, 3 grains; powdered cinnamon or 

 cloves, I grain ; powdered willow charcoal, 3 grains. Give twice 

 a day mixed with food or made into pills with flour and water. 



"Subnitrate of bismuth, 3 grains ; bicarbonate of soda, i grain ; 

 powdered cinchona bark, 2 grains; mix and give 3 times a day 

 in a paste made with rice flour. When diarrhea is arrested, 

 bismuth and soda are no longer needed. Give as a tonic : Pow- 

 dered fennel, anise, coriander, and cinchona — each 30 grains; 

 powdered gentian and ginger each i dram, powdered sulphate 

 of iron, 15 grains. Mix and give in the feed so that each fowl 

 will get 2 to 14 grains twice a day." 



Constipation. 



Constipation occurs in adult fowls far less often than diarrhea. 

 It frequently passes unnoticed unless very severe. This trouble 

 is much more common in young stock than in grown birds. In 

 adult fowls it often occurs in connection with indigestion, gas- 

 tritis, or peritonitis. "A not infrequent cause is obstruction of 

 the vent by accumulations of excrement on the feathers about 

 it This is especially apt to occur following looseness of the 

 bowels in fowls, which do not roost. Intestinal worms also may 

 cause constipation by accumulating until their mass blocks the 

 passage." (Robinson.) 



Lack of exercise, or lack of green food are also occasional 

 causes of constipation. 



