54 



POULTRY DISEASES AND THEIK TREATMENT. 



a very different life history from the Amoeba, consequently it 

 probably has a different method of dispersal and different means 

 must be used in combatting it. 



Diagnosis. — There are no special external symptoms of this 

 disease until in an ailvanced stage. The victim then begins to 

 mope, loses its appetite and is inclined to sit apart with drooped 

 wings. The head and comb take on a dark color from which 

 the disease takes its name "blackhead." One of the most con- 

 spicuous symptoms is the diarrhea. Post-mortem examination 

 shows the liver enlarged and disfigured with whitish or yellow- 

 ish spots. The ceca are inflamed and often clogged with pus 

 and fecal matter. 



Treatment. — Medical treat- 

 ment of turkeys affected with 

 blackhead is of little avail, at 

 least in the present state of 

 our knowledge. Cole and 

 Hadley (Rhode Island Expt. 

 Stat. I^ul. 141) recommend 

 the following : ( i ) Isolate the 

 sick bird from the flock and 

 place it in a dry, well lighted 

 location free from cold and 

 3f draughts. (2) Feed sparing- 

 ly on soft, light, easily assim- 

 ilable food, with little grain, 

 especially corn." The chief preventative measures are to keep 

 the birds on fresh ground ; to isolate any birds showing the 

 least sign of disease, to destroy all dead birds and to protect 

 the turkey's from contamination carried either by new stock or 

 by other poultry or by wild birds as sparrows, crows, etc. Dr. 

 Morse (B. A. I. Circ. 128) recommends for turkeys under 3 

 months old ji grain copperas in the morning and a 2}^ grain 

 pill of salicylate of soda in the evening. Give Epsom salts 

 every 3 or 4 days and keep the grounds and floors well sprinkled 

 with lime. 



\\'ith fowls the disease is not .so virulent but it is still well 

 to protect the flock from introduction of this disease. In this 

 connection Dr. Cole (American Poultry World, 1910) says: 

 "It is no uncommon thing for adult chickens and other poultry 



Fig. I. Showing condition ot 

 liver in "blackhead." (Modi- 

 fied after i\Ioore). 



