CHAPTER xX. 
PIGEONS’ AILMENTS. 
Canker a Filth Disease which Makes its Appearance in Nasty, 
Cramped and Crowded Quarters — It is a Captivity Disease 
and a Sure Cure for it 1s to Turn the Bird Loose to Get a 
Change of Food and Plenty of Exercise — A Flock Supplied 
with Pure Food and Clean Water Never will be Sick — 
Canker 1s Not Epidemic—It does Not Pay to Dose a 
Sick Pigeon, Better Turn it Out to Get Well. 
The principal ailment met with by the squab breeder is 
canker. This ailment is a puzzle to some breeders and they 
are alarmed when it makes an appearance in their flock, as 
it does if the feed is poor or sour, the water dirty, or the squab 
house filthy. The advice which they give when they find a 
cankered bird is, ‘‘Kill it.” That is the advice we used to 
give at first, but now we know better. First, what is canker? 
It is a disease of which you know the cause (filth, poor feed or 
dirty water) and whose symptoms you see in the form of a 
cheesy-like deposit in the mouth of the pigeon, and breaking 
out around the bill. Catch the pigeon, hold it in your lap 
and force open its bill and you will see a yellowish patch or 
patches in the mouth, and the mouth will usually be filled 
with a yellowish deposit which smells bad. The disease is 
not serious. The trouble lies with the feed and the filth and 
that is what spreads the same symptoms from one pigeon to 
another. A case of canker in your flock should be a warning 
to you that the feed or water is wrong, or that you 
have a filthy house. Do not get alarmed and kill the bird. 
Catch the affected pigeon, carry it out of your flying pen 
and squab house and throw it into the air. The bird may 
fly away and lose itself, and if it does you are out one pigeon 
just as if you had killed it. The chances are, however, as in 
the case of any sick animal, that it will linger around home. 
Now you will be surprised to see how quickly that pigeon’s 
health will improve. Not having a steady supply of food 
before it, it will have to hustle for a living, and this exercise 
and the change of living, and the scanty living, will effect the 
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