CAUSE AND CURE OF SICKNESS 



167 



head, throat, bronchial tubes or lungs, 

 whilst with little chicks, it affects first 

 the bowels. 



A fireless brooder might have saved 

 all your chicks. A barrel is very cold, 

 unless it is well banked up on the out- 

 side and the nest inside very carefully 

 made. A flat box is much better. Cop- 

 peras will not help them; the best thing 

 for them is rice, boiled in milk, with a 

 tablespoonful of ground cinnamon to 

 each pint of the milk added after cook- 

 ing. Cinnamon is a good disinfectant 

 and healing and warming to the bowels. 

 Copperas is cold and chilling and is apt 

 to give indigestion to small chicks. 



PuixEts Dying — We have a flock of 

 incubator chicks that are not doing very 

 well. The little pullets started to die 

 when but seven weeks old and we lose 

 one or two every day. They have the 

 whole farm to run on. At first they 

 hang their wings and act sleepy, then 

 their heads turn blue and they die. We 

 cannot find lice nor fleas on them. They 

 are fed wheat, oatmeal, and some onions 

 and malk. Have plenty of water, grit 

 and charcoal. — Mrs.T. L. 



Answer — I think your chickens have 

 worms ; the wings dropping and their 

 acting sleepy are two of the most promi- 

 nent symptoms with worms. Cut open 

 the next one that dies and examine it. 

 The best cure that I have found for 

 worms is ten drops of turpentine in a 

 teaspoonful of castor oil. This is for 

 the common round worms. For tape 

 worms, which are not so common, the 

 dose is ten drops of tincture of male 

 fern on a piece of bread or a lump of 

 suear in the morning, fasting followed 

 by a dose of castor oil in an hour. Be 

 careful to clean up and destroy the drop- 

 pings or the other chickens will eat 

 thero and the trouble will increase. 



Diphtheritic Roup — Having derived 

 many useful ideas from your writings, 

 I take the liberty to ask your advice re- 

 garding a disease which has come upon 

 my chickens. The first symptoms seem 

 to be a sneezing or squawking sound, 

 as if the chicken had a beard in its 

 throat; then a white membrane forms 

 over the windpipe and the eyes close up 

 and lumps break out around the comb. 

 The lumps finally break and the eyes 

 and nose run. Both Barred Rocks and 

 White Leghorns are afflicted. The 

 Barred seem to suffer the most.— Mrs. 

 R. F. 



Answer — I am sorry to say your fowls 

 have diphtheritic roup. It is a very in- 

 fectious disease and if you have children 

 you had better keep them away from 

 the fowls. Spray the mouth, throat, 

 nostrils and cleft in the mouth twice a 

 day with peroxide of hydrogen. Give 

 the fowls a quinine pill, four nights in 

 succession, and once a day a bolus of 

 the following mixture : Two spoons of 

 lard, one each of mustard, cayenne pep- 

 per and vinegar; mix thoroughly, add 

 flour enough to make stiff dough; give 

 a bolus as large as the first joint of your 

 little finger once every twenty-four 

 hours. 



Fatty Degeneration of Liver — I have 

 noticed a hen moping and eating but 

 little for two or three weeks, but as I 

 had broken some up from sitting, 

 thought it the result from broodiness. 

 However, as she got no better I separ- 

 ated her from the others, but yesterday 

 she died. This morning I did as you 

 advised, and duly performed the autopsy. 

 I saw at once on making an incision 

 what was the matter. Her liver was so 

 enlarged that it occupied almost the 

 whole cavity. I never saw one such a 

 size. It was covered in blotches of pink 

 spots, small as a pin point. There was 

 fat around the heart and the intestines ; 

 perhaps a fifth of an inch thick. There 

 was plenty of grit in the gizzard but no 

 food. The heart seemed in good con- 

 dition, the body a good color, and flesh 

 firm,. In the cavities of the back is a 

 substance, of which I do not know the 

 name, that seems to be enlarging and 

 hardened. There were many eggs, but 

 very small and undeveloped. Is this the 

 kind of liver which is used as a delicacv 

 and produced by overfeeding? My fowls 

 were fed corn all winter and were much 

 too fat this spring. In March they had 

 layers of fat an inch in thickness. I did 

 not suppose that a laying hen ought to 

 have any fat inside of her. How should 

 that be?— G. S. H. 



Answer — Your hens certainly had 

 fatty degeneration of the liver, or the 

 disease which the overfat geese have 

 when their liver is considered a deli- 

 cacy. She simply had been fed an un- 

 balanced ration containing too much of 

 the fat element, and being a Plymouth 

 Rock, had become overfat. The sub- 

 stance in the cavities of the back is the 

 kidneys. There are three lobes of these 

 on each side. Your fattening ration had 

 also affected them. So much fat will 



