July, 1912.] 



47 



Live Stock, 



than to attempt a prolonged doctoring. 

 As a preventive of contagion, it is a good 

 plan to place a small piece of camphor 

 in the turkey's drinking water. Diet 

 throughout the treatment should consist 

 of warm milk and bread. 



Internal Parasites. 



The parasites of turkeys are largely a 

 replica of what are found on fowls and 

 consist of lice, mites, fleas, worms etc. 

 The internals ones are termed worms, 

 of which there are many sorts. The 

 majority of them infest turkeys and 

 fowls, some turkeys only while a promi- 

 nent American authority particularises 

 one or two sorts which are found in 

 fowls, ducks, geese and turkeys. 



Parasitic worms infest many turkeys 

 whose owners do not at all suspect their 

 presence. Worms, when present in 

 troublesome numbers, interfere seriously 

 with the help of their host. Consider- 

 ing the condition produced by them as 

 a disease, it is found that the symptoms 

 are not very marked until a rather acute 

 stage has been reached. The actual 

 presence of worms can only be determin- 

 ed by finding them in the turkeys' 

 droppings or by post mortem examin- 

 ation. When one or two fowls or tur- 

 keys become infested, the trouble soon 

 spreads to the whole flock. They are 

 passed from one bird to another. The 

 small worms or eggs come from the 

 infested ones in the droppings and are 

 eaten by the others. 



When their presence is discovered, it 

 is best to begin treatment with a dose 

 of castor-oil to each bird. The morning 

 following this, each bird should be 

 given from 15 to 20 drops of turpentine 

 in a teaspoonful of salad-oil and, two 

 hours afterwards, a breakfast of scalded 

 bran only into which half a teaspoonful 

 of epsom salts for each bird has been 

 mixed. If this is repeated every two 

 days for a week, the worms will be 

 dislodged. 



Other remedies are a 4-grain pill of 

 sautouine followed by a half a teaspoon- 

 ful of castor oil or 8 to 10 drops of male- 

 fern in a teaspoonful of sweet or salad- 



oil. The above is tor adults ; a quarter 

 of the quantity will suffice for turkey 

 chicks. The turpentine and other re- 

 medies should always be given on an 

 empty stomach. 



External Parasites. 

 However numerous the varieties of 

 internal parasites of feathered stock, 

 the external ones fall little short of 

 them in numbers. Some of them, such 

 as lice, live permanently on their hosts 

 while others, such as fleas, some mites 

 and ticks go to and fro. Some live 

 among the barbes of the feathers ; others 

 with their heads against the skin and 

 their bodies erect. The external para- 

 sites sometimes cause the turkey hen 

 to abandon her nest and hatching i 

 failures are often due to their presence. 

 All of the external vermin breed rapidly 

 while their habits are such that, al- 

 though largely due to dirt, they quickly 

 spread from dirty birds to clean ones 

 and thus often invade yards celebrated 

 for cleanliness. 



Lice are not blood-suckers but bite 

 and chew the feathers, living on them 

 and the epidermis of the skin. Mites and 

 ticks are the most dangerous. These do 

 not live on the birds but visit them at 

 night and suck their blood. 



Pleas are more troublesome to fowls 

 than to turkeys and are usually found 

 in dirty, close, insanitary buildings. 

 They lay their eggs in the dust and 

 crevices of the wait and entomologists < 

 tell us they breed all the year round. 



When it has become known that there 

 is an infestation, the first thing to do is 

 to make a complete clearance of every 

 internal fitting of the house— perches, 

 boxes and everything else should be 

 removed into the poultry yard and given 

 a thorough painting with kerosene and 

 this repeated the second day. The inside 

 walls of the house should then be given 

 a good brushing down with an old 

 kitchen- broom, then a thorough paint- 

 ing with kerosene, to be followed by a 

 coating of whitewash, to which has been 

 added, say 1 pint of crude carbolic to 

 each gallon of the wash. Should the 



