482 



Minor Ailments of Poultry. 



Chickens hatched from anaemic stock are, moreover, prone to 

 acquire the disease. 



As there is no certain remedy known, and as the disease 

 •spreads rapidly, it will be found advisable to kill all birds 

 so affected, and to burn the carcases. 



Cramp comes, like apoplexy, from over-feeding, or from too 

 much fatty matter ; from being kept on stone or concrete 

 floors ; and, sometimes, from imperfect circulation. 



The feathers " stare," especially across the back, and, though 

 the eye may be bright and the plumage glossy, the bird has no 

 strength in its legs at all. 



Soak the legs in hot mustard and water, and, when quite 

 warm, rub dry, and then anoint them first with turpentine and 

 afterwards with vaseline. Repeat the treatment in a few hours' 

 time, and the bird will generally recover. 



In order, however, that the symptoms may not recur, see that 

 all your birds have plenty of exercise ; throw down some small 

 grain among their scratching litter, and give them a large- 

 headed cabbage or mangold to pick, and let them have more 

 fresh lean meat than before. 



Leg Weakness, which usually shows itself among over-forced 

 young table poultry, may be treated precisely the same as cramp, 

 'but the treatment, to be truly efficacious, should be more 

 thorough, for while the cure of cramp is only a matter of hours, 

 if taken in time, leg weakness often cannot be stopped in less 

 than a fortnight. Proceed as follows : — Put the affected birds 

 quite away by themselves, and do not allow them to perch, but 

 bed them down on peat-moss, chaff, or bruised straw ; feed 

 them chiefly on pea or bean meal, sharps, bran, a good deal of 

 lean meat or cut green bone, and greenstuff, giving them a 

 tablespoonful of Douglas' mixture (see p. 487) to every quart 

 of drinking water every other day for a month. On no account 

 let the birds have any hard corn for a couple of weeks, but 

 feed them up on the food already mentioned. That your birds 

 may not receive a set-back of this sort be careful not to feed 

 over much on such foods as maize or maize-meal, rice or 

 white bread. 



Crop {Diseases of). — The bird seems to be always trying to 

 swallow something. 



