170 



MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK 



run in a lettuce patch part of the day. 

 I have a hot air brooder, plenty of fresh 

 air at night. No sign of lice and I use 

 a powder in the brooder once a week. 

 I have raised chickens for several years 

 but have never had any trouble like this 

 and I would be greatly obliged if you 

 can diagnose the case and give a remedy. 

 — Mrs. P. V. M., Sacramento. 



Answer — The symptoms you describe 

 are those of poisoning or sudden and 

 acute digestion. I can only suggest that 

 it may be that the chick feed has mouldy 

 grain in it or there may be ptomaine 

 poison in the beef scrap. I would sug- 

 gest that you put a little bicarbonate of 

 soda in the drinking water. Give all the 

 succulent green food that you can per- 

 suade them to eat and to each affected 

 chick administer without delay ten drops 

 of castor oil. Try to find out where the 

 poison comes from, change all the bed- 

 ding in the brooder and brooder house 

 and scald the brooder thoroughly with 

 hot soap suds. When any sudden trou- 

 ble like this comes, try to find the cause 

 of it and remove it. I feel sure it is 

 poison of some kind, either ptomaine or 

 fungoid, such as mouldy bread or mil- 

 dewed grain. 



Limber Neck — We have between 200 

 and 300 chicks two months old that are 

 badly afflicted with limber neck, and we 

 cannot find out the cause. The first two 

 or three weeks we fed them millet and 

 Johnny cake, made stiff and dry, of 

 coarse corn meal, but they began to get 

 sick, so changed to dry food, consisting 

 of cracked wheat, millet, beef scraps and 

 grit, but the chicks got no better, so now 

 we are using just wheat and grit. They 

 have lettuce every day and often young 

 vegetables — tops and all. Until about a 

 week ago they were kept by themselves 

 in wire pens, but as an experiment my 

 husband let them out to run, and still 

 they get sick. They do not all die, as I 

 bring them to the house as soon as we 

 find the sick ones, but from one to seven 

 die nearly every day. They have fresh 

 water every morning. I do not try to 

 doctor them, but just keep them warm. 

 I have saved some pretty sick ones in 

 that way. They are such a bother, and 

 we have lost so many in that way. The 

 flock which is the most affected had a 

 habit of huddling when they were small, 

 until they would sweat and sometimes 

 die. Do you suppose that could have 

 anything to do with the present trou- 

 bles?— Mrs. F. L. 



Answer — Limber neck is due to a dis- 

 order of the ne'rvous system and is usu- 

 ally the result of disturbances of the di- 

 gestive organs from severe attacks of 

 indigestion or from infestation with 

 worm parasites. Chicks are sometimes 

 affected in this manner by unusually hot 

 days and nights. I think very probably 

 their digestive organs were weakened by 

 being overheated when they huddled, 

 and I would give the whole flock plenty 

 of charcoal to eat, with plenty of green 

 food and animal food, and no millet, as 

 millet is very hard to digest. Give the 

 sick birds a small piece of gum asa- 

 foetida, about the size of a green pea. 

 Repeat the dose the second day. This 

 will usually cure. Feed them with bruised 

 garlic or with chopped up onions. Give 

 them grit or very coarse sand in boxes 

 to assist in the digestion, and I think 

 you will have no further trouble. 



It is possible that your chickens have 

 worms. You had better open the next 

 one that dies and examine it, and if you 

 find it infected, give the others turpen- 

 tine in the drinking water, half a tea- 

 spoonful to a pint of water (giving no 

 other drinking water) or if you prefer 

 it, give a teaspoonful of castor oil with 

 ten drops of turpentine in it to each sick 

 chick. The chickens dislike the turpen- 

 tine in the water, but it will kill the 

 common round worms if continued for a 

 week. 



Liver Troubles or Poison — I want 

 your advice and a remedy for my sick 

 fowls. The symptoms are briefly stated : 

 Grown chickens affected droop for two 

 days, comb turns black and they die. 

 Have lost nine in two days. 



My chickens have free range, fresh 

 water and plenty of barnyard scratching 

 with Egyptian corn every night. — 

 C. V. N. 



Answer — The symptoms you describe 

 denote either liver trouble or poison. 

 In your case I think perhaps it is poi- 

 son, either from rat poison, gopher or 

 some poisonous weed. You had better 

 hold a post mortem examination on the 

 next one that dies and then you will be 

 able to tell just what the trouble is. 



Liver Disease — The liver is the larg- 

 est and most important organ in the 

 fowl's body. It not only prepares the 

 bile which is poured into the intestines 

 to assist digestion, but it acts also as a 

 germ destroyer, and assists in some of 

 the necessary chemical changes which 



