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CHAPTER XVI. 
DISEASES OF POULTRY. 
Nearly all poultry diseases are caused by either cold, wet, want of cleanliness, or bad feeding ; in 
other words, by neglect somewhere. It is easier to guard against this than to cure birds when they 
are ill, which is almost always a very unsatisfactory speculation. The chief obstacle is that, being 
covered with feathers, there are few symptoms to observe ; and as the poor dumb things cannot tell 
what is the matter with them, we often have to prescribe very much in the dark. We see, for 
instance, a fowl evidently ill ; with feathers ruffled, comb dark and dull, appetite nearly gone, and 
listless and dull in manner ; but this may be the result of many different causes, and more special 
symptoms are hard to discover, seeing we can hardly feel its pulse, and its skin is difficult to 
examine. Common fowls hardly pay for the trouble they give in treatment ; but with valuable 
birds the case is different, and it is chiefly on their account we give what is yet known, so far as 
we have been able to discover, of poultry disease. 
There can be no doubt whatever that a certain per-centage of death amongst fowls is an actual 
benefit. Fowls, like everything else, must die some time ; and, again like everything else, it can 
but seldom happen that the cause of death will be mere old age. A certain proportion of loss, 
therefore, is not necessarily a proof of mismanagement, but is rather part of the economy of the 
great Superintendent of the universe, by which creatures no longer really capable of maintaining 
the vigour of the species are taken from a world in which they are of no further use. As is well 
put by a writer in one of the American poultry journals, “ the sure eye of Nature has picked out 
the very ones that you would be glad to be rid of could you detect them, and has left you the 
hardier individuals to breed from ; the weakness, moreover, often consisting in some profound fault 
that does not show itself.” 
It is cases of this nature, in which some extra trial of weather or circumstances has only 
developed latent weakness, issuing or not, as the case may be, in any well-marked complaint, which 
are difficult or even impossible of cure. There are however many cases in which exposure or other 
active cause has occasioned acute disease in the most healthy birds, presenting plainly-marked 
symptoms, the treatment of which is well understood. Such are mostly amenable to judicious 
treatment, and fowls of priceless value may thus be saved, which otherwise must be lost to the 
amateur. Between the small group of such plainly-marked diseases — as roup — and the many 
instances in which to all present knowledge the symptoms are utterly obscure, and recovery must 
be left to the natural powers of the bird, aided by such nursing and regimen as appear best, is a 
large class of cases in which partial ground for guidance is afforded by some one or more symptoms 
of a marked character. In these also treatment may be adopted with hope if the affection be of 
a sudden or acute character ; but chronic symptoms usually betray constitutional weakness, and 
are not only difficult to deal with, but even in the interests of the yard it is often better to let 
them run their natural course, or to anticipate their effect by a merciful execution. 
It will therefore be seen, that “cure” of a sick bird may be by no means an unmixed 
