POULTRY DISEASES AND THEIR TREATMENT. 107 



sistant. No medical treatment is known to be effective. Salmon 

 gives a list of treatments which have been suggested and says 

 "No form of treatment yet suggested, however, is very prom- 

 ising and the effort should be to prevent rather than cure." All 

 birds that die should be burned or buried. 



Prognosis. The disease in adult fowls is ordinarily not recog- 

 nized as such until an affected bird comes to post-mortem at 

 which time the prognosis is certainly extremely unfavorable. 

 So far as concerns ridding a poultry plant of the disease, how- 

 ever, the outlook is favorable if energetic sanitary measures 

 along the lines indicated above are applied. 



Congestion of the Lungs. 



Congestion of the lungs is a distension of the blood vessels 

 which make up the vascular portion of those organs. The 

 pressure of these distended vessels may close the smaller air 

 passages, or a vessel may burst, filling the bronchi. In either 

 case the patient soon suffocates. 



Diagnosis. — The symptoms of this disease are difficult rapid 

 breathing, sleepiness and an indisposition to move. A bloody 

 mucus sometimes flows from the mouth. The comb is dark red 

 or bluish from lack of oxygen in the blood. Symptoms appear 

 suddenly and death occurs within a few hours. 



Etiology. — This disease is caused by chilling the surface of 

 the body. This contracts the surface vessels and a larger vol- 

 ume of blood is sent to the internal organs. The pressure on 

 the small elastic vessels of the lungs is too great and they either 

 close the air passages by pressing against them or the vessel 

 walls are ruptured by the internal pressure and the air passages 

 become filled with blood. This disease most often occurs in 

 denuded birds (hens during moulting or young birds which have 

 failed to feather out) or small chicks which have been exposed 

 to cold or allowed to run out in cold, wet weather. 



Treatment. — The rapid course of the disease makes treat- 

 ment impracticable. Prevention is the only cure. BiVds should 

 be well nourished with plenty of green food and should be 

 especially protected from cold and wet when moulting. Also 

 chicks v/hich are in a stage between down (chick) and juvenal 

 feathers need special protection. This disease often attacks 

 brooder chicks and indicates something wrong with the brood- 

 ing. The cause should be immediately sought out and removed. 



