Various Fox ms of Canker. 
89 
sufficient to cure it. If not, a pencil of lunar caustic should be procured, and gently inserted, like a 
gimlet, into the ear — that is, turning it round as it advances, till it reaches the bottom of the cavity. 
Then the ear should be carefully dried, and solution of gutta-percha, warmed into a fluid state, 
dropped in till the cavity is filled, and pressed with the finger so as to adhere to the edges of the 
aperture. The ear should then be left till the plug drops out of itself, which it will do in time, and 
in many cases the canker, being thus protected from the air, will be found to be cured ; or if not, 
it will often assume the other or “dry” form within a few weeks after, after which recover)/ is 
pretty certain. After thus passing from the moist into the dry form, it must not be touched or 
treated in any way, as it will then cast itself off in one mass of indurated matter ; but care should 
be taken to give the bird only the soundest and best food. This touching with caustic, and 
subsequent keeping from the air, has been the most successful means of stopping the discharge 
of any we have tried ; but we would in all instances try bathing first, which if persevered in 
often leads to good results. 
In the other form the swelling is not so bad, and the ear remains dry, what matter there is 
visible being hard and flaky. All that is necessary in this case is to mix some fuller’s earth with 
water rather thin, and paste or fill the ear up with this, by means of a brush, every two days. 
This will soften the matter and enable it to be detached, and heal up the place, by protecting it 
from the air. Some cases of this kind will be better within a week, and others will take months ; 
but it cannot be forced, and except when there was hereditary taint, this form of the disease has 
with us always yielded in time. The dry form of canker will indeed often get well if left alone, with 
sound good food and air ; and, in fact, if nothing goes wrong we believe it always will ; but at any 
time the cold air may irritate the ear, and cause the other and worst form of the disease to come 
on, which the fuller’s earth prevents. It also absorbs any little moisture, and seems to have a 
slight healing effect of its own. Wc have tried various applications, but this simple application is 
best of them all for this form of the disease. 
Canker often appears in the inside of the lower mandible. When thus occurring, if not too far 
gone, it is generally easily cured by cutting off the tip of the tongue, which in these cases is 
usually found abnormally long, and by its constant irritation and movement against the delicate 
surface causes the malady, which, if unchecked, will sometimes cause the mandible to break quite 
off. The length that should be cut off is generally about an eighth of an inch, and the amputation 
gives no pain, the part being horny and devoid of feeling. The tip of the tongue having been 
removed, the cankered part must be cut out, and, if a severe case, a hole also cut clean through 
the lower mandible at the place. The wound is then to be washed with Condy’s Fluid, after which 
a caustic pencil is to be turned round inside the hole, and applied to the whole of the wound. It 
will rapidly heal, while the hole, as soon as it has fulfilled its purpose, will also fill up and become 
as solid as before. A more troublesome case is when the canker breaks out at the soft part of the 
jaw, when the irritation caused by the continual opening and shutting hinders recovery. In this 
case, the part should be thoroughly scraped, all the corroded matter being either cut or scraped care- 
fully off, when the wound is to be painted by a camel-hair brush with oil of vitriol, and the bird put 
into a small box or basket, with a gag or ring upon its upper mandible at least a quarter of an inch 
thick, so as to prevent the opening and shutting of the beak, and consequent flow of saliva diluting 
the vitriol. It is best, for this reason, to give each dressing at night, when the bird will remain 
more quiet, and the vitriol will act upon the seat of the malady till morning ; when the pigeon can 
be set at liberty till night, at which time another dressing of the vitriol should be applied. Some 
use caustic, but we prefer vitriol in this form of the disease. We may add that neither this nor 
any other form of canker beyond that described as small-pox, can be considered contagious. 
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