Correspondence



229



SUCCESSFUL TREATMENT OF SICK CASSOWARY


We have had a Cassowary some three years now. This bird has

always been fairly wild. One could go in the pen with him but he was

easily startled and could never be handled. Early in June, 1932,

he apparently contracted a chill. He failed to get up one morning,

and when forced up was quite weak at the ec knees ”, he was gasping

visibly through a widely open beak, and after staggering round a bit

just sat down and closed his eyes. He made not the slightest resistance

to being handled. On my arrival to “ vet ” him I was at once struck

with the burning heat of his neck and head. I have not yet learned

how to take a Cassowary’s temperature. Anyway, I made a provisional

diagnosis of pneumonia. The bird was obviously very ill, and indeed

seemed dying. At times he would peck feebly at bits of banana and

apple. On inspecting his mouth I found that the orifice of the trachsea,

which is peculiarly obvious in these birds, was markedly inflamed,

and some thin mucus discharge was constantly present in the lower

mandible. This exactly resembled human “ saliva This bird,

following the winter, was in average condition. I will simply describe

the treatment adopted, on empirical lines. The bird did not cough.


One symptom I did not like was a weakening or softening of the

lower mandible making it overlap the upper. I have seen the same

thing in sick and debilitated Parrots. I blame this softening to a

Vitamin D shortage, and a similar condition is observable in young

crocodiles. (Birds are not so far from the reptiles.) At this time I

was treating with success a 12-inch crocodile whose bones were so soft

that he fairly flattened under his own weight and further could hardly

breathe owing to the softening of his ribs. The treatment for the

crocodile was a massive dose daily of Adexolin (one teaspoonful, in

fact) and forcible feeding.


We started off by giving our Cassowary a teaspoonful of brandy

frequently, a teaspoonful of Adexolin night and morning, an orange in

quarters at the same time. We forcibly fed him dog biscuits, apple,

banana, and lettuce. After the first few days he began eating a bit

himself, and was extra avid for a mixture of flint limestone and oyster-

shell, together with lettuce. At the end of the week he was on his



