CROP BOUND 483 



droppings is such that they hold their shape upon evacuation 

 and do not soil or stick to the dropping board. A variation 

 of feed will usually cause more or less looseness which is not 

 9.t all alarming. The condition is not referred to as diar- 

 rhetic until the consistency of the evacuations is such as to 

 soil the feathers. If no other symptoms appear beyond 

 the diarrhea,, and the color is not such as to suspect diseases 

 described elsewhere in this chapter, it may usually be 

 assumed that something is wrong with the feed. The birds 

 should be given salts in a wet mash, at the rate of a 

 teaspoonful per bird and the cause sought out and removed. 



Cropbound. — Cropboimd or the impaction of the crop is 

 a condition usually brought about through improper feeding. 

 It may occur where birds that have been starved consume 

 a large amount of dry grain, thereby distending the walls 

 of the crop and apparently bringing about a partial para- 

 lysis. More frequently it is brought about by the con- 

 sumption of indigestible material which clogs the opening 

 from the crop into the lower portion of the alimentary tract. 

 This is likely to occur in the spring with stock that has 

 not been supplied with green feed during the winter. When 

 the first green shoots appear, fowls consume considerable 

 dead grass in their eagerness to get the tender green shoots. 

 This grass may become worked into a ball, which is too 

 large to pass through the lower opening of the crop. Not 

 infrequently birds that are changed suddenly to a ration 

 containing oats suffer from this difficulty. A single oat 

 lodged across the ventral opening of the crop may at first 

 act as a mechanical obstruction, later causing irritation and 

 swelling that completely closes the opening. 



Where cropbound appears in any considerable nimiber of 

 a given flock the first consideration should be the protection 

 of the unaffected members of the flock through the removal 

 of the cause. If on inspection of the affected birds it is 

 found that oats have caused the difficulty they should be 

 taken from the ration and re-introduced only very gradually. 

 If dead grass picked up in an effort to secure green feed is 

 the cause, a generous supply of succulence should be 

 provided. 



