Diseases of Pigeons. 
379 
to shake off entirely the effects of roup or a bad cold (and roup, to all intents and purposes, may 
be regarded as a bad cold but with the addition of some specific poison which is highly contagious), 
it is very apt to suffer later on from canker, wing-disease, tubcrculatcd lungs or liver, or diseased 
formations of some kind in one locality or other, tending to show that there is a specific poison which 
is absorbed by the system. Diseased liver or lungs is not at all an unfrequent sequel to neglected 
cold or roup, and can generally be detected by the bird preferring to squat on the ground at 
night instead of roosting on its perch, and panting or gasping when taken in the hand. 
Roup is not easy to cure, but there is hope when taken in time. The bird should be at once 
removed to a moderately warm pen, free from draught, but within hearing of its companions, to 
keep it from pining away, but first let the head be bathed for five minutes with water as hot as the 
back of the hand can bear. In doing this, the bird should be wrapped round with a cloth or 
slipped into the top half of a stocking, that it may not struggle, as its head should be carefully kept 
downwards, in order to prevent any of the poisonous secretion being swallowed. After bathing, the 
head should be gently dried, first, however, squeezing out from the inside any of the viscid matter 
that may have collected in the nostrils or passages, which, after the warm bathing, is easily done. 
Then dip the head in warm oil, or, in case of Barbs or Owls which have contracted gullets, do the 
whole bathing with the oil, as warm as the back of the hand can comfortably bear. Then give the 
bird two pieces of salt the size of a bean, and let it remain in the pen till the third day, when, if no 
improvement, the treatment should be repeated, but if better only the oil need be used, continuing 
the salt. After six days, if the symptoms did not abate, we would administer two capsules of 
castor-oil every second day for a week ; and if after that the roup still remained we would give a 
jalap pill of the ordinary size ; if the last did not succeed we should have very little hope of a 
cure. During treatment the bird should be fed upon a mixture of old tares, wheat, rice, and good 
hemp-seed; and if so bad that it will not feed itself, hand-fed with peas soaked in milk for several 
hours, giving boiled milk instead of water to drink. It may be well to repeat that the doses mentioned 
being for ordinary-sized pigeons, Tumblers and Foreign Owls should only have half the quantity. 
The foregoing is the treatment we have found most successful with the highly-bred varieties, 
the warm oil in particular appearing to be of marked benefit, though it of course spoils the bird 
for exhibition unless very carefully washed off. Common or coarse birds of any kind are cured 
with comparative ease. We have often, in fact, cured such birds by simply penning up away from 
draught, and giving a dose of Epsom salts twice a week (dry, giving say a couple of pinches between 
finger and thumb) ; but the other treatment, tending as it does gently to allay the inflammation 
and assist the bird to throw off the discharge, has been far the most successful both at the 
time, and in appearing to prevent after-effects, such as we have described ; which on the other 
hand seem more apt to follow the suppression of the discharge by astringents, such as sulphate of 
iron, which some have recommended. Our experience leads us to the conclusion that if true roup 
be formed, the poison must be thrown off in some way, if after or secondary symptoms are to be 
averted ; and this we find is best ensured by the warm and soothing bathing of the head combined 
with purgatives, the salt probably acting merely as an antiseptic. For the same reason, when 
subsequent canker breaks out on the body, it is little use to suppress the discharge, as it will 
generally break out again ; but by simply applying fuller’s earth and leaving it to take its course, 
there is often a gradual drying up of the secretion, and healing of the wound. The only 
exception we would make is when the apparently first stage of canker on the body was observed 
in the shape of a small pimple, as this might arise from some accidental prick or scratch, and still, 
if neglected, grow into canker. In such a case, therefore, we would apply citron ointment, which, 
if therq be no poison in the blood, will usually cure. 
