176 



MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK 



Now as to treatment. If I remember 

 rightly, the roup cure you are using is 

 made principally of permanganate of 

 potash and bluestone (sulphate of cop- 

 per). Both of these are excellent germ- 

 icides and by killing the germs of the 

 catarrh or roup, they prevent their mul- 

 tiplying, and give nature a chance to re- 

 cuperate. I think, though, the roup cure 

 is more effective than the severer medi- 

 cines, such as turpentine and carbolic 

 acid, so I now recommend that your 

 roup cure be given in the drinking wa- 

 ter, at the same time dipping the head 

 in the same. Or you can put one cupful 

 of kerosene oil into two parts of water. 

 The oil will float on top; dip the fowl's 

 head slowly under this, holding it there 

 while you count three. It will sneeze 

 and cough and you must wipe off the 

 mucus with a rag and burn the rag. 



With some of the fowls the catarrh 

 will go deeper and for these I think the 

 peroxide of hydrogen, spraying the 

 throat well, is the best, giving always 

 the permanganate of potash and blue- 

 stone in the drinking water. 



For those that have developed bron- 

 chitis or where you think the bronchitis 

 may be just commencing, give aconite, 

 one drop in a teaspoonful of milk, twice 

 or three times a day. The symptoms 

 you describe are exactly those of bron- 

 chitis, so I feel confident in recommend- 

 ing the aconite. Dr. Woods recommends 

 the "Aconite, Bryonia and Spongis mix- 

 ture," but I have not tried it. The mix- 

 ture is "ten drops of the tincture of each 

 in an ounce of alcohol. Use a teaspoon- 

 ful of this in a quart of drinking wa- 

 ter." I think this might be very useful, 

 especially at the commencement of a 

 cold or bronchitis. Dr. Woods says that 

 two doses will often effect a cure. Or 

 you can get this in tablet form at the 

 drug store. The tablet (1-100 of a grain 

 in strength) can be given one to each 

 bird two or three times a day or twelve 

 tablets in each pint of drinking water. 



I have found a teaspoonful of honey 

 with five drops of eucalyptus oil, twice 

 a day, to be an excellent cure. The 

 honey is very soothing and is also nour- 

 ishing and sustaining. Bronchitis is a 

 very debilitating illness and the fowl 

 should be fed only liquid nourishment, 

 such as raw egg beaten up with half the 

 amount of milk, about two teaspoonsful 

 every two or three hours. I have given 

 a tablespoonful of milk or milk with 

 honey mixed. I have a small "invalid 

 drinking cup ;" it is a narrow cup with a 



spout like a teapot, which I have found 

 very useful and handy, as I could insert 

 the spout a little ways down the throat 

 of the hen and none of the liquid would 

 be spilt. A child's toy teapot with a 

 rather long spout will answer the pur- 

 pose, but an invalid drinking cup, cost- 

 ing ten cents, is extremely useful and 

 worth many times its price for chickens. 

 You can use a dropping tube also for 

 administering liquid medicine. I realize 

 that with the large number of fowls that 

 you have you want an easy and quick 

 way of doctoring, and the only way is 

 by the drinking water. 



In cases of cold or the cold going 

 deeper, as in to bronchitis or pneumonia, 

 fowls need very easily digested, light 

 and nourishing food. I have found noth- 

 ing better than bread and milk. To this 

 can be added a little bran, or a few eggs 

 can be beaten up with the milk before 

 putting in the bread if you think neces- 

 sary. You did perfectly right to segre- 

 gate the fowls. Colds of all kinds, even 

 pneumonia, are infectious. 



I would strongly advise you to house 

 your hens in open front houses. In this 

 way there would be no draughts from 

 windows left open. Open front houses 

 are a preventive of both bronchitis and 

 pneumonia. 



I have found that the pills or asa- 

 foetida and quinine which I recommend 

 in my book, if given at the very out- 

 break of a cold, frequently cure with one 

 dose ; also the mixture, No. S. This is 

 Mr. Hunter's old remedy and has been 

 found successful by hundreds of people. 



Roup — How to Cure It — I have over 

 a hundred hens, all breeds. A good 

 many of them are sick ; I have tried ev- 

 erything, but to date I have not found 

 anything to do them good. A yellow, 

 hard substance that has a very bad odor 

 forms in their mouths and eventually 

 in their windpipes and they drop over 

 dead. I have lost about thirty inside of 

 a month. I feed chopped corn and wheat, 

 with plenty of Pratt's chicken food. Use 

 Conkey's Roup Cure and bluestone. 

 They run at the nose and their eyes 

 swell shut; others look fine, combs red, 

 and you would not know anything was 

 wrong with them until they fall over 

 dead. Can you tell me what is the mat- 

 ter with them and what I am to do with 

 them? I paid $1.00 apiece for my hens 

 and it is hard to see them all die and 

 not know what to do for them. — Mrs. 

 R. B. 



