HEAD, THROAT AND LUNGS 



lime used, and air must be admitted in fair quantities. Too little air or 

 too much lime long administered will cause a serious inflammation of the 

 mucous membrane of the air passage. 



If gapes is introduced into your plant you should plan to raise all chicks 

 the next season on ground that has not been used for poultry purposes for 

 several years. Plow and plant to some hoed crop all yards or ground that 

 have been used by infected birds. After two years such land will probably 

 be safe to use again for poultry. 



You are never sure you have the gapes unless you can find one or more 

 of the worms. It is decidedly risky to treat for gapes unless you know you 

 have that disease to contend with. A bird may gape or appear to have 

 something in its throat and yet not have the "gape-worm" in its windpipe. 

 There is little, if any, disturbance of the general system in the commence- 

 ment of gapes, while in bronchitis or pneumonia there is some rise in tem- 

 perature. To use lime dust on birds sick with pneumonia or bronchitis is 

 to do that which is likely to kill the bird. Better no treatment than thought- 

 less diagnosis of disease and an off-hand use of strong remedies. 



LIMBERNECK 



A RECORD OF EXPERIMENTS THAT SHOWS HOW IT 

 IS CAUSED AND HOW IT MAY BE PREVENTED 



W. W. KULP 



DURING the hot months many fowls and chicks are killed by what is 

 called limberneck. The name describes their condition, for their 

 necks are surely limber, but it gives no hint of the cause. The 

 cause is ptomaine poisoning. 

 Because of lack of knowledge as to the cause, people do not know how 

 best to prevent the trouble. Many know that it is noticed after the fowls 

 have eaten maggots and the statement is made that maggots do not die 

 ,when eaten and, being alive in the fowl, cause the trouble. This cannot be 

 true, for maggots are a natural food for^owls; they are dangerous only when 

 they contain poison from decaying flesh. The poison, if present in the mag- 

 gots, soon stops the processes in the stomach, and the maggots may live long- 

 er than they would were the digestive organs of the fowl able to do their 

 proper work. 



The first I ever saw of this trouble was after I had been in the poultry 

 business about fifteen years. I could not understand it, but thought it 

 looked like the effects of poison. I examined several dead fowls and found 

 all their internal organs apparently healthy. The pupils of their eyes 

 were enlarged, as is usually. the case when any animal is poisoned. I soon 

 found that the trouble was caused by the chicks eating maggots on a dead 

 hen. As it was my first experience, I thought I could prevent a recurrence 



