THE INTESTINES AND CROP 



the bird up to examine it, finds it has lost weight; holding it head downward, 

 a stringy, dirty liquid runs from the mouth, and death of the bird soon fol- 

 lows. In such cases, the bird has been sick several weeks before it was 

 noticed. Exanunation of the body after death shows the liver enlarged 

 or shrunken, according to the duration of the disease. If of long duration, 

 the liver is shrunken. The spleen is usually enlarged. The intestines are 

 inflamed and are full of m\icus. 



Treatment 

 Prevent the disease if possible by cleanliness and pure food and water. 

 Quarantine all new arrivals; this disease is contagious. When the disease 

 is discovered, isolate all sick birds. Clean up the poultry houses and runs, 

 and disinfect everything. Give all coops, nests and houses a thorough 

 whitewashing. Use, alsoi, powdered charcoal in their soft food; do not 

 use enough to make their mash dark and uninviting. Clean up everything, 

 and keep it clean. Do not feed too heavily.. Use low grade flour or white 

 middlings in the mash, and use less bran. For the sick birds which have 

 been removed for treatment, give a one-tenth of a grain tablet of calomel 

 three times daily. For flock treatment, twelve tablets, each representing 

 one one-thousandth of a grain mercury bichloride, dissolved in each quart 

 of drinking water and no other drink allowed, will be found to, be effective. 

 Feed on bread moistened with boiled mUk. Avoid all sloppy masses, and 

 be sure to supply pure water. Keep up your treatment in all cases until 

 you are sure that your birds are cured, and the danger of contagion passed. 



CHOLERA AND DIARRHOEAS 

 DR. N. W. SANBORN. 



Cholera knows no breed. The sluggish Cochin and the active Leg- 

 horn show no difference in susceptibility to this dread disease. Chicks 

 and adult fowls are alike fair prey to this trouble. 



Temperature is a factor in spreading, as well as controlling, cholera. 

 Warm, damp days are favorable to the increase of an epidemic, while a 

 continued freeze often holds in check an outbreak of cholera. Cholera 

 shows itself in the wet days of autumn or early spring, rather than in mid- 

 winter. 



Prevention is more satisfactory than medicine. In fact, unless you 

 early recognize the trouble you have to contend with, you stand little chance 

 of curing the birds. Cholera runs so rapid a course that there is short time 

 to do any active medication. 



There is no desire for food, but the bird is decidedly thirsty. The de- 

 sire for water is o;ffset by the sluggishness of the bird, and it may be seen 

 starting for the water dish, then stopping to wait on the way. The first 

 discharge from the bowels is thick from the usual contents of the intes- 

 tines, but as the bowels become empty the discharge gets less solid and quite 



57 



