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DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE APPARATUS. 



Treatment. This is first of all hygienic. The patients must 

 be placed in an aviary or in a room of mild temperature. 



In order to obtain this, Ziirn advises to cover the floor of the 

 stable with a thick layer of horse manure. It is preferable to heat 

 the place and to keep it perfectly clean. We should give food of 

 easy digestion, and preferably cooked food (millet, rice, etc.). In 

 order to check the diarrhea, we may use roasted barley, rice-water, 

 old biscuit, hemp-seed, poppy-seed, chocolate (for parrots) bread 

 soaked in cognac, red wine (a tea- or tablespoonful with grain, bis- 

 cuit, etc., which must be macerated in it), or mucilaginous decoc- 

 tions — Ziirn advises decoctions of pearled oats (15 grammes per 

 litre of water) — linseed, roots of marshmallow (15 grammes per 

 200 grammes of water), to be given in a dose of one large spoonful. 



We can also give a drink composed of 1 : 100 of sulphate of iron, 

 a decoction of oak-bark, opium (5 to 10 drops of tincture of opium 

 for large birds, according to Ziirn), also nitrate of silver (1 to 2 

 teaspoonfuls of a solution of 1 ; 100 advised by the same author). 



For indigestion, Ziirn recommends small particles of garlic, also 

 pills made of pepper and butter, a decoction of peppermint, or cala- 

 mus (2 : 60), given three times daily in doses of a tablespoonful for 

 the chicken, and a teaspoonful for the pigeon. 



2. Constipation in poultry may follow diarrhea or may be the 

 result of the presence of intestinal worms or foreign bodies in the 

 stomach or intestine (pebbles, feathers, indigestible bodies in gen- 

 eral), also from an accumulation of thickened fecal matters in the 

 cloaca, or from weakness of the digestive canal, etc. 



Ziirn advises to counteract constipation of the chicken by green 

 food, soft and salted prepared food, and that of the pigeon with oat 

 soups. The mucilaginous and fat bodies, oils and cold-water clys- 

 ters administered with the siphon are also very desirable remedies. 

 In small birds we can introduce the well-oiled blunt or button 

 sound into the rectum. The mechanical extraction of fecal matters 

 accumulated in the rectum and cloaca is also advised. Among the 

 purgatives we must select castor oil (two large spoonfuls for a hen) 

 also senna (1 to 2 grammes of powder at one time, or 4 grammes of 

 crushed leaves soaked for six hours in 200 c.cm. of fresh water, to 

 be given a teaspoonful at a time till the appearance of a laxative 

 effect), also rhubarb (0.4 to 0.6 gramme with honey, in pills). 



For small fancy birds we may use the tincture of rhubarb, per 

 drop, in the drinking-water. 



