228 POULTRY CULTURE 



slatted so the birds cannot get their feet into them to con- 

 taminate the feed. Water or milk should be given from a 

 container which is likewise protected. 



Treatment. — Intestinal antiseptics are indicated. Perman- 

 ganate of potash may be used in the water. A good way to 

 handle this disinfectant is to use a pint jar, place some crystals 

 of potassium permanganate in it, and fill with water. Every 

 time the water-troughs are refilled pour enough of this stock 

 solution into the water to give it a slight tinge. Always keep 

 some undissolved crystals of the potassium permanganate in 

 the bottom of the jar. Add more of the crystals as needed, 

 also more water as the water is used out of the jar. Sulpho- 

 carbolate of calcium, sulphocarbolate of sodium, and sulpho- 

 carbolate of zinc, equal parts, have given good results. Each 

 bird should receive }^ grain of this mixture three times a day. 

 It may be dissolved and added to milk, or it may be dissolved 

 in warm water and this water used to mix with a mash. As 

 a mash it must be fed from long troughs, so that all birds can 

 get to it and each get approximately their proportion. 



FOWL-CHOLERA 



Fowl-cholera is often called chicken-cholera. It is not due 

 to the same germs that produce hog-cholera in hogs, nor is it 

 similar to the germ that produces cholera in people. 



Cause. — ^It is due to a rod-shaped germ or micro-organism, 

 which stains at the ends with f uchsin while the middle remains 

 unstained. It is necessary to examine a prepared and stained 

 smear from the blood of a bird dead or ill of the disease under 

 the microscope, and this magnified 900 to 1000 diameters 

 befoie the germ is visible. It now appears as a short rod with 

 rounded ends. The blood of a bird sick of cholera is found 

 teeming with the germs, hence it is a septicemia. 



This germ is scientifically known as the Bacillus avisepticus. 



The discharge from the bowel of a bird sick of cholera con- 

 tains millions of the germs causing the disease. Food or 

 water becoming contaminated with the droppings of sick birds 

 form a source of danger of spread of the disease. This con- 

 tagious material may be transferred by the feet of the fowls. 



