CHAPTER VII. 



Diseases op the Liver. 



"The annual losses of poultry due to liver trouble in various 

 ■forms are numerous. These diseases seem to occur chiefly 

 among adult fowls, and to be more prevalent in the latter part 

 of the winter and through the spring. The reasons for their 

 frequency then are easily found. The common forms of liver 

 trouble result from improper feeding and lack of exercise. These 

 causes operate most extensively during the winter, and they 

 usually operate slowly, and the symptoms of liver troubles are 

 generally obscure and not recognized until a post-mortem of 

 fowls dying without special outward symptoms shows a dis- 

 eased condition of the liver. Hence liver trouble may become 

 general and reach advanced stages in a flock before their pres- 

 ence is suspected. Meantime, the conditions which cause them 

 may be continued, the owner of a flock not infrequently sup- 

 posing that the absence of sickness in it contradicts the teachings 

 of those who advise methods designed to preserve health, while 

 as a matter of fact many of his fowls are in a quite advanced 

 stage of some liver complaint." (Robinson.) 



A large number of diseases of the liver are described by 

 writers on this subject. In the great majority of these diseases 

 there are no external symptoms by which one can be told from 

 another. The most common diseases which affect the liver may, 

 for the moment, be divided into two rough classes which it is 

 highly important for the poultryman to distinguish. These again 

 can only be distinguished in dead birds, but the occurrence of 

 cases of either kind in any number gives the poultryman a clue 

 as to what the trouble may be and a chance to correct it. In the 

 first of these two classes a post-mortem examination shows the 

 liver covered with nodules of a cheesy-like appearance when 

 opened. These nodules occur not only in the liver but also in the 

 spleen, intestine and other organs and sometimes in these latter 

 regions without affecting the liver at all. With such symptoms 



