The diseases of poultry may perhaps be more conveniently arranged
under the heads of the different parts that are affected than in any
more strictly scientific order. We may therefore describe them as
affecting the Skin, Lungs and Air Passages, Digestive System, Egg
Organs, Brain, and the Organs of Motion.
SKIN DISEASES.--When fowls are kept on unnatural food, and in
closely confined, dirty situations, they are very liable to lose
the feathers of the head and neck from a chronic disease of the
skin. This complaint may be constantly seen in the fowls in the mews
and stableyards in London, where it arises from the dirty, dark
roosting places, and absence of fresh vegetable and insect food. Of
course a radical cure is out of the question, unless the unnatural
circumstances producing the disease are removed; if this is done,
and a five-grain Plummer’s pill given on two or three occasions, at
intervals of three days, the disease is speedily removed, but the
feathers will not be replaced until the next moulting season.
In Cochins which have been highly fed, particularly if peas and
greaves have formed part of their food, a somewhat similar disease
is often seen; and, as it commences with whiteness of the comb, it
is frequently termed “white comb.” The treatment in severe cases is
similar to that previously described; but mild attacks are said to
yield to the application of turmeric mixed with cocoa-nut oil in the
proportion of one part of the former to eight of the latter.
Moulting, being a natural action, cannot be regarded as a disease,
but it frequently is much delayed, and the birds evidently suffer in
such cases; it is therefore desirable, when fowls are not moulting
favourably, to treat them as invalids, giving them food which is more
nourishing than usual, such as a little chopped meat, either raw or
cooked, keeping them in a warm and sheltered habitation, &c.
Lice often infest fowls to an extreme degree, and cause a great
amount of irritation; this inconvenience may be prevented by giving
them dry ashes to scuffle in, and keeping the houses clean and well
lime-washed. When they are very abundant, flour of brimstone dusted
under the feathers will be found a certain remedy; it is conveniently
used if tied up in a piece of coarse muslin, or powdered from a flour
dredger, or if more convenient, a pound or two may be added to the
dust bath.
DISEASES OF THE LUNGS AND AIR PASSAGES.--Roup is the most serious
disease occurring in the poultry yard, not only on account of its
affecting large numbers at one time, but also from the fact that
it is not easily subdued by medical treatment; great confusion and
difference of opinion have occurred from several distinct diseases
having been confounded under this name. True roup commences with a
sticky discharge from the nostrils, at first clear, but afterwards
thick and of a very peculiar and offensive smell, the nostrils become
partially or entirely closed, and there is consequently some slight
difficulty of breathing, and a distention of the loose skin of the
under jaw may be noticed; froth frequently appears at the inner
corner of the eye, the lids swell, and in severe cases the sides of
the face swell greatly, the fowl becoming blind; from the discharge
being wiped on the feathers of the side and under the wing, they
become matted together; and in addition to these symptoms there is
extreme thirst. Roup is essentially a disease of the membrane lining
the nose, similar in this respect to glanders in horses; I believe
it to be highly contagious, and unless a roupy fowl is very valuable
would recommend its being at once killed. I think the disease is
often communicated by the discharge from the nostrils running into
the water out of which the fowls drink. As to treatment, a roupy
fowl should at once be removed from the yard, placed in a warm dry
room, the nostrils and eyes sponged with warm water, and a solution
of ten grains of blue vitriol to an ounce of water dropped into the
nostrils, either from the front or through the slit in the roof of
the mouth, warm stimulating food, as meal or bread and ale, and a
little pepper should be given. Remedies given internally seem to have
but very little effect on the disease, but I think I have seen more
benefit from half a grain of blue vitriol given once a day in meal
than from any other medicine.
Croup, from the similarity of its name is often confounded with Roup,
from which, however, it is perfectly distinct, being inflammation
of the wind-pipe, the symptoms are a difficulty of breathing and a
rattling or peculiar noise in the throat, this, in some cases, is
even musical; sometimes thick glairy mucus is coughed up, but there
is never any swelling of the face or discharge from the nostrils, the
disease is most frequent in damp weather, and yields readily to warm
dry housing, and one-twelfth of a grain of tartar emetic.
Inflammation of the lungs is known by a difficulty of breathing, but
without the noise of croup, the same treatment with tartar emetic is
advisable.
Consumption, arising from the presence of scrofulous matter in the
lungs, is produced by cold, damp, bad food, and is also inherited
from parents; this disease being hereditary, it is worse than useless
to attempt to cure fowls that are affected, as the chicken are
certain to be tainted with the disease.
Pip is the name given to a dry horny scale which appears on the
tongue, in all those diseases in which the fowl becomes feverish; it
is only a symptom of internal fever and not a disease itself, the
remedy is to remove the real disease causing it.
Gapes in chicken is caused by peculiar parasitic worms adhering to
the inside of the windpipe; they are readily removed by stripping a
small quill of its side feather, except an inch of the end, dipping
it in spirits of turpentine, and inserting it in the wind-pipe; but
as this remedy often excites fatal inflammation, I have suggested
fumigation with the vapour of turpentine, by shutting the chicken up
in a box, with some shavings moistened with the spirit, as long as
they can withstand the action of the vapour, and the remedy has been
found very successful.
DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS are simple in their treatment. A
fowl sometimes becomes crop-bound from overdistending that organ;
warm water poured down the throat frequently loosens the mass; but,
if necessary, a perpendicular incision may be made at the upper part
of the swelling sufficiently large to extract the swollen food, and
it will be found to close again without the slightest difficulty;
the fowl should, however, be kept on soft food for several days
afterwards. Inflammation of the stomach, which is situated between
the crop and the gizzard, is a very frequent cause of death in highly
fed fowls--they mope, refuse to eat, pine away, and die; there is
no cure for the disease, but it is readily prevented by the use of
natural food--peas, greaves, hemp seed, being rigorously excluded.
In Diarrhœa, five grains of chalk, two grains of cayenne, and five
grains of powdered rhubarb may be given, and if the discharge is
not speedily checked, a grain of opium and the same quantity of
ipecacuanha may be administered every four or six hours.
DISEASES OF THE EGG ORGANS.--The most important disease of these
organs is inflammation of the egg passage, shewn by the laying
of soft or imperfect eggs; this complaint is readily remedied by
giving one grain of calomel and one-twelfth of a grain of tartar
emetic, made into a pill with meal; sometimes soft eggs arise from
a deficiency of lime, in which case, a little old mortar rubbish
remedies the defect.
The calomel and tartar emetic, which I first recommended for this
disease in the _Cottage Gardener_, has been frequently given in
other diseases, such as inflammation of the stomach, &c., and I need
scarcely say with the effect of aggravating the evil very materially;
there is no universal poultry medicine.
Disease of the ovary, or organ in which the yolks are formed, is
not unfrequent, when the comb and wattles become like those of the
cock, and the hen crows frequently; such birds are generally but
erroneously termed hen-cocks, they must not be confounded with the
hen-feathered cocks spoken of in the article on Hamburghs.
DISEASES OF THE LIMBS.--Cramp in young chicken from exposure to cold
and damp is very fatal to early hatches, it can be prevented only by
warmth and dryness.
Leg weakness, which is most frequent in rapidly growing chicken
and young birds, particularly Cochins, arises from a disproportion
between the weight and strength of the animal, the bird in
consequence, sinks down upon its hocks; I have found four or five
grains of citrate of iron given daily in meal successful in every
case in which I have employed it.
Inflammation of the feet, closely resembling gout, I have seen in
many cases, particularly in Cochins; the feet become very hot and
swell. One grain of calomel at night and three drops of colchicum
wine twice a day, I have found afford considerable relief.
The bumble foot of Dorkings, is a swelling occurring in the ball of
the foot, not attended with heat, but followed by ulceration and
a diseased growth. I have found that it may, to a great degree, be
prevented by having the perches broad and low, not above four feet
in height, as the disease is evidently set up in many cases, and
increased in all, by the violence with which the heavy birds descend
to the ground; from the low vitality of the parts affected, I have
found that no treatment is attended with any beneficial results.
Broken wings are best treated by tying the points of the quill
feathers together in a natural position and keeping the bird in an
empty place, where there is no perch to tempt it to fly. Broken legs
may be bandaged round by strips of stout brown paper soaked in white
of egg well beaten up with a fork, the leg should be kept steady by
two splints of wood until the paper has become dry, when it will be
found sufficiently firm to remain secure if wound round with a turn
or two of thread.
DISEASES OF THE BRAIN are not unfrequent in overfed fowls, apoplexy
being the most frequent. The birds affected fall suddenly from their
perches and are found dead. Little can be done in the way of cure;
much in the way of prevention, by abstaining from unnatural food; in
an actual attack, if the bird is seen before death, it may be bled by
opening the vein on the under side of the wing, but the chances of
recovery are but small. Paralysis also arises from the same cause.
In vertigo, which depends on an undue determination of blood to the
brain, the fowls run round and round or stagger about; letting a
stream of cold water on the head immediately relieves, this should be
followed by a grain of calomel or ten of jalap, in severe cases it
may be necessary to open a vein.
In most of the older poultry books certain nostrums, as rue and
butter, are constantly recommended; rue is a violent irritating
stimulant, and I am not aware of any disease affecting fowls in which
its use is at all likely to be productive of good effects.
King, Printer, 63, Queen Street, Cheapside.
Transcriber’s Note:
Words and phrases in italics are surrounded by underscores, _like
this_. Inconsistent hyphenation was not changed. Two misspelled words
were corrected. One excess comma was removed. One final stop missing
at the end of an abbreviation was added. A column key was added to the
table beginning on line 411.