INTERNAL PARASITES 245 



Treatment. — In way of treatment it is found necessary to 

 keep the yard and hen house clean. The drinking water for 

 the birds should be kept in fountains and no depressions 

 allowed about the yard for the accumulation of small pools of 

 rain water. The feed should be given from clean troughs, 

 made for the purpose, and disinfected daily by scrubbing with 

 a 5 per cent, solution of carbohc acid or other equally good 

 disinfectant. All troughs should be so constructed that the 

 birds cannot step in them. (See Figs. 90, 93, and 94.) 



Fast the birds twenty-four hours, and then give each bird 

 one teaspoonful of olive oil and one teaspoonful of turpentine. 



If the flock be large and it is the desire to make an effort to 

 treat the birds by giving the agent in the feed, the following 

 plan may be tried : Fast the bird twenty-four hours, then mix 

 with shorts and water 2 grains areca nut for each bird, making 

 the mixture about the consistency of batter. Pour the mix- 

 ture in a trough, so that all the birds can get to the feed at the 

 same time and each bird obtain its proportionate amount. 



Areca nut is not only a parasiticide, that is, kills the parasite 

 or worm, but an irritant to the mucous membrane lining the 

 bowel, and hence a cathartic or physic, causing the expulsion 

 of the worm. 



One-grain doses of thymol is excellent treatment. This 

 must be followed by a physic of salts or oil. 



SMALL ROUND-WORMS 



There is a small round-worm, whitish in color and from 3^ 

 to }/2 inch in length, which infests the ceca or blind pouches 

 of the intestines of the chicken. This worm in many localities 

 of the United States is found in 50 per cent, of the birds 

 examined. 



If the bird be infested by large nimabers of worms, similar 

 conditions are noted as produced by the larger round- worm. 



As to treatment, it will be found somewhat more difficult 

 to rid the intestinal tract on account of the anatomic arrange- 

 ment of the ceca. 



Best results will probably be attained by giving santonin, 

 areca nut, or thymol as for the larger worm, as stated before. 



