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red pepper given in the food. When there are signs of stuffiness, the eyes and the nostrils should be washed out once or twice daily. Carbolic acid 2%, or boric acid, about 3%, dissolved in water, is recommended for this purpose. Witch hazel has been found very effective.

Caution. There is a risk of mistaking the early stages of roup for a simple cold. Further, birds are more likely to contract roup when suffering from a cold, and should, on this account, be isolated and regularly examined. Influenza.

or

The term influenza, grippe, is generally applied to a severe cold that has no symptoms of roup.

CONSTIPATION

Not common and seldom serious

Symptoms. The bird suffering is dull and listless. Its efforts to evacuate are painful and unsuccessful.

Cause. Internal blocking of the cloaca or the intestines, or, occasionally, of the

vent by dirt accumulated on the outside. Want of exercise and lack of green food are held to be contributing causes.

Treatment. If constipation is due to dirt on the outside, cleanse vent by swabbing with warm water. When stoppage is inside and can be felt through the vent syringe with sweet oil. In other cases, give a purgative such as castor oil or Epsom salts. If worms are suspected as the cause, give santonin (see page 9), followed by a teaspoonful of castor oil.

CRAMP

Must not be confused with more serious complaints

Symptoms. Difficulty in standing and lameness, due to inflammation of muscles and joints.

Cause. Damp and cold.

Treatment. Put legs of bird in warm. water; rub joints with embrocation and put in dry quarters.

NOTE-In cases of rheumatism, tick fever,

and tuberculosis, birds may show the same difficulty in standing that they do in cramp.

CROP-BOUND (IMPACTION OF CROP)

Symptoms.

swollen.

Not serious, as a rule

The crop is hard and

Cause. The blocking of the passage from the crop to the gizzard by a bit of stick or a stone, with the result that the food cannot pass out of the crop.

Treatment.-Pour sweet oil down fowl's throat; work the crop with the fingers, endeavoring to remove the obstructing object. If unsuccessful, cut open the crop and remove the contents, making sure that the opening into the gizzard is clear. Sew up the cut made, stitching separately first the inner skin and then the outer.

DIARRHEA OR ENTERITIS

May take a serious and epidemic form

Diarrhea is a common complaint among fowls, and in some cases takes a severe and

epidemic form. The latter form may be due to various causes, and it will be best, perhaps, to deal with diarrhea under the following heads:

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2. Epidemic and severe diarrhea.
3. Dysentery. (See page 52.)
4. Cholera. (See page 39.)

5. White diarrhea of chickens. (See
page 92.)

Symptoms.

Mild Diarrhea.

Looseness of bowels and staining of feathers around the anus with

excreta.

Cause. Indigestion caused by food which may be too laxative; e. g., excess of bran, or, by food which may be partly decomposed or may contain an intestinal irritant. Cold may also be a cause.

Treatment. Give Epsom salts, or castor oil. (See page 9.) Change diet if food. is suspected. Often no treatment is necessary, but it is not wise to neglect cases that are apparently mild diarrhea, for fear they

may turn out to be an epidemic and contagious form.

Diarrhea, Severe and Epidemic

Excessive

looseness

of

Symptoms. bowels, ruffling of feathers, depression, loss of appetite. A number of birds in the flock are attacked and death results.

Cause. There are a variety of causes. Scientific investigation has led to the discovery of specific organisms responsible for various forms of diarrhea. It would be well for poultry rearers to study the results of such work, but, for the purposes of this book, it will be sufficient to state that the causal organism may be bacterial, mycotic, or protozoan. The owner of poultry will not usually be able himself to determine what type of diarrhea the fowls are suffering from, but as a rule the treatment will have to be the same. Advice will have to be sought from an expert when dangerous epidemics are feared.

Treatment. The most energetic meas

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