RELIABLE POULTRY REMEDIES 



which have at any time been used by infected birds, are thoroughly disin- 

 fected before poultry is allowed to occupy them. Gapes affect all kinds 

 of domestic fowls and many varieties of wild birds. 



LIME DUST FOR GAPES 

 DR. N. W. SANBORN 



Gapes have been written about since the first of the last century. The 

 national agricultural department, fifteen years ago, employed Dr. H. D. 

 Walker, of New York, to study the gape worm. As part of the report of 

 his labors, we are told that newly hatched embryos introduced into the 

 windpipe of a chick gain full size in eight days. That eggs must have a 

 temperature of above thirty-two to grow and are destroyed by freezing. 



The parasite that is the cause of gapes varies in length from one-eighth 

 to one-half inch, and is threadlike in appearance. Its color varies accord- 

 ing to the amount of the bird's blood that it may have taken at the time of 

 examination. It may be pale or even bright red. Often you may think 

 you have found a double-headed worm, but careful looking will show you 

 that what seemed at first one worm with two heads is really two worms 

 closely united for breeding. The worm usually found in the windpipe is 

 half an inch long and its diameter that of a medium sized sewing needle. 



Symptoms 

 The symptoms vary according to the amount of irritation and loss of 

 nutrition. The early symptom is a little cough (hack), as though some 

 dust had slipped into the windpipe, and the bird was trying to eject it. As 

 the woVms increase in size and number, their presence inflames the lining 

 membrane of the windpipe, increasing the amount of normal secretion as 

 well as thickening the lining itself. The increase of irritation, the flow of 

 mucus, and the swollen membrane, all work to change the character of the 

 breathing, giving us the gasping or gaping that names the disease. The 

 bird goes about with open mouth, as if he had taken a mouthful of too hot 

 food. In some cases the mucus secreted is so plentiful as to partially pre- 

 vent the passing of air, and in others it is drawn into the bronchial tubes, 

 often causing the death of the chick. The inflammation itself may extend 

 to the lungs and so kill the bird. 



Treatment 



The most common and satisfactory treatment is the use of lime dust. 

 The fawls are shut in a barrel or box, so arranged as to allow inspection of 

 them while subjected to the process, and air-slaked lime is allowed to settle 

 slowly through the air of the chamber. This is done by having part of the 

 top of the box or barrel covered with bagging so the dust can be admitted 

 slowly as well as finely. The lime irritates the linings of the windpipe as 

 well as those of the finer tubes of the chest and its use is followed by cough- 

 ing and sneezing. This dislodges the worms, and repeated coughing brings 

 iip some of them. Care must be taken to limit the ' amount of 



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