THE INTESTINES AND CROP 



exclusion of bulky vegetable elements. Then there is the lack of exercise 

 due to close houses and small yards, and no scratching material. Over- 

 feeding and little work cause the deposit of fat in various parts of the body 

 and no organ suffers more from this cause than the liver. 



At the beginning of tliis trouble the hen shows an increased bright- 

 ness in comb and wattles and is an extra good layer. Soon, however, the 

 reaction comes. The comb becomes less bright and the bird takes little 

 painp in the care of its plumage. As the bird becomes more and more 

 heavy it moves about slowly; taking time in all motions, staying on the 

 roost late in the morning and returning to it early in the afternoon. 



Vale states that "as a precautionary measure, poultry keepers should 

 occasionally take up each fowl and gently grasp the abdominal walls be- 

 tween the fingers and the heel of the hand. If found to be firm and un- 

 yielding it is pretty certain that they are too fat. To remedy this state of 

 affairs, reduce the quantity of fat-forming food given, and add a little Epsom 

 salts to their drinking water. 



Treatment 



Add to the drinking water, one-half teaspoonful powdered muriate 

 of ammonia to every quart. Feed very sparingly upon unstimulating tood', 

 and give plenty of green food. 



APOPLEXY 

 DR. N. W. SANBORN 



By apoplexy I mean the condition resulting from a break in a blood 

 vessel of the brain. This break may come because of a weakened state of 

 the artery itself, or from too great a blood pressure on it from over action 

 of the heart. The common cause of weakness of the blood vessels of the 

 brain is an over-fat condition of the whole bird. In" common with other 

 parts of the muscular system, the little muscles of the arteries suffer from 

 fatty degeneration, which produces a weakened wall to resist pressure. 

 Without some other direct factor this fatty wall would seldom give away 

 and produce a brain trouble. However, let a fowl in this fatty state be 

 chased violently about the farm, and the increased action of the heart brings 

 to bear on the brain vessels increased pressure that is likely to produce 

 serious results. Hens in this diseased condition are likely to have difficulty 

 in passing their eggs, and during the greater strain imposed in laying they 

 are liable to burst a vessel in the brain, and apoplexy results. This ac- 

 counts for many lajdng hens being found dead on the nest. 



Filling crop and gizzard to extreme fuUness, in an over-fat bird has 

 been known to produce apoplexy and death. I remember a case in my 

 own yards several years ago. A two-year old male, a Wyandotte, at the 

 end of a long breeding season was put into a pen with a dozeri half grown 

 cockerels. While in the breeding pen he was all attention to the hens, 

 seeing that they had food enough before he would help himself, but under' 



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