Minor Ailments of Poultry. 



479 



on soft, light food — giving no hard grain at all — and a dose of 

 five grains of bromide of potassium each day. 



Do fowls bear purging ? If so, calomel is a useful purge in 

 apoplexy. Probably about ^th grain powder every day. 



Reduce the amount of food given to the rest of pen, and be 

 sure that all your birds have plenty of greenstuff and exercise. 



Bronchitis, as a rule, comes in the cold, wet weather of 

 autumn, but it sometimes causes trouble at other seasons if 

 fowls be exposed to violent storms or are kept in ill-ventilated, 

 dirty houses. It may be induced by the spreading about in 

 yards or on floors of unslaked lime, for this irritates the 

 bronchial tubes and lungs, and so makes the birds prone to 

 take cold more readily than they should do. 



If the disorder becomes apparent, be careful to pick out all 

 suspects and house them separately, keeping them fairly warm, 

 dry, and out of draughts, and give each sick bird one drop of 

 tincture of aconite three times a day. It is but seldom they 

 will need treating for more than four days. 



Many of the reputed cases of " gapes " are really bronchitis, 

 and whereas the treatment for the latter will not hurt birds 

 suffering from gapes, that for gapes would be likely to kill those 

 suffering from bronchitis. It is therefore wise first to treat for 

 bronchitis all birds which seem ill and gape, and if at the end of 

 three or four days they be not cured, then to proceed as for 

 gapes. (Leaflet No. 58, Part 1.) 



Feed your patients while under treatment on a warm mash 

 mixed crumbly, but by no means sloppily, composed of three 

 parts scalded bran, one part of cooked lean meat, and one part 

 each of oatmeal and boiled linseed meal, with plenty of green 

 food and grit of some kind, but give no hard food until birds 

 are well. The food must be given to each bird by hand. 



Fumigate the patients every night with a little eucalyptus oil 

 on a hot shovel ; this will make them cough, but will do them 

 a great deal of good. It is also well, especially in obstinate 

 cases, to place a bowl of boiling water in the hospital coop, into 

 which has been poured from three to five drops of the eucalyptus 

 oil. Both oil and water must be renewed three times a day. 



Bumble-foot is caused in a variety of ways — by a bruise 

 possibly from treading on a sharp stone ; from a thorn or piece 



