Symptoms. The flesh becomes inflamed and swollen and forms a “head” containing pus.
Cause. A scratch or a small injury followed by inflammation due to pus-forming organisms.
Treatment. Lance the abscess when “ripe” with a clean, sharp knife, cutting low so that the sore may drain readily. Squeeze out the pus; wash with 1% carbolic acid or creolin and dress with creolin and sweet oil (half and half) until healed.
The most common abscess is that which forms on the pad of the foot and develops into bumblefoot.
Symptoms. Birds lose weight, or ”go light,” without any apparent reason.
Cause. A general lack of thriftiness in the flock may be due to insufficient or poor food, to lack of exercise, or to bad ventilation of houses; lice or mites may be infesting the birds. On the other hand, birds may gradually lose weight as the result of some such disease as tuberculosis (see page 90}, aspergillosis (see page 29), or worms (see page 94).
Treatment. Make any changes in feeding or management that may appear desirable. Search at night for mites or lice on the birds; in the daytime examine the straw in nest boxes, the roosts, and the cracks and crevices of the woodwork for parasites. Much time may often be saved in discovering what is wrong with the flock by killing one or more of the affected birds and making a post-mortem examination to discover if a specific disease is the cause.
Symptoms. Staggering gait and bewildered appearance; bird generally drops dead suddenly.
Cause. Attributed to high feeding or over-laying.
Treatment. There is usually no time for treatment, but if the attack is mild, put the bird in a dark place and give no food for a few hours; give a dose of Epsom salts and add green food to diet. Bleeding from under a wing is sometimes tried.
Post-mortem examination shows clotted blood on the brain, the other organs being normal.
The name vertigo is applied to congestion of the brain as distinct from apoplexy due to hemorrhage of the brain. The fowl has fits. It is difficult to distinguish this disease from epilepsy (see page 55). The cause is little understood.
Symptoms. Fowls gradually lose weight, mope, and die without any pronounced ailment except difficulty in breathing. In adults the disease may be mistaken for tuberculosis and in chickens for white diarrhea. Aspergillosis of chickens is dealt with under brooder pneumonia. Post-mortem symptoms are whitish or yellowish growths on the windpipe, that can only be definitely diagnosed under the microscope.
Cause. A fungoid growth in the windpipe and bronchial tubes, sometimes extending to the lungs and liver. Fig. 8 shows the spores and filaments of the species of aspergillosis most commonly responsible for this disease. Infection may be due to musty grain or dirty straw.
Treatment. No medicines are of any avail. Protection lies in not using musty grain or moldy litter. Burn dead birds.
Symptoms. Young turkeys, or poults, are most commonly attacked; there is loss of weight and loss of appetite; the bird appears listless and stands by itself with drooping wings and tail. Diarrhea is generally one of the symptoms. The comb often turns a dark purple—a symptom that has given rise to the name blackhead. Death generally follows an attack fairly rapidly, but in some cases the disease may take a chronic form, while it is believed that recovery is occasionally effected.
Post-mortem symptoms. The cæca (see Fig. 32) are enlarged, are diseased in parts, and are more or less plugged with cheesy matter and pus. The liver is diseased, being sometimes very much enlarged and covered with yellowish necrotic areas, generally depressed in the centre (see Fig. 24d). In cases of an acute attack, especially in young birds, one of the cæca only may be affected and the liver may not be invaded. The extent of the necrotic areas and the degree of the enlargement of the infected organs may vary greatly in different cases.
Cause. The cause of blackhead has been shown by Drs. Cole and Hadley to be a coccidium. A full account of their work is published in Bulletin 141 of the Rhode Island Experiment Station. Coccidia enter the digestive tract of the healthy turkey by means of food or water infected by the excrement of a sick bird. The organisms pass along the alimentary canal until they reach the cæca, the lining of which they attack, giving rise to the conditions mentioned under post-mortem symptoms. How the infection spreads from the cæca to the liver is not clear.
It has been conclusively proved that fowls, as well as pigeons, sparrows, etc., act as hosts for these parasites. Although adult fowls have a great degree of resistance themselves, they are a means of carrying infection to turkeys.
Eggs may be one of the means of spreading the disease, as they may become contaminated in the oviduct or the cloaca of birds affected with blackhead.
Treatment. No remedy or satisfactory method of prevention has been discovered. The difficulty of effecting a cure is obvious when the nature of the disease is considered. Drs. Cole and Hadley summarize measures of prevention as follows:
1. Protect the yards and flocks which may have the good fortune to be uninfected with the blackhead organism by a thorough examination of all new stock, whether turkeys, fowls, geese or other domestic birds.
2. Keep the turkeys on grounds which are as fresh as can be obtained, and above all, keep them isolated from fowls and other domestic birds.
3. Keep every turkey in the flock under close observation in order to separate and at once isolate any bird which gives evidence of the disease. To facilitate such observations it is helpful to leg-band each individual, and to record its weight from time to time. Such a course makes it possible to learn whether any birds are losing weight, and if this is the case, these birds must be regarded with suspicion, and separated from the rest of the flock.
4. If it is known that blackhead is present in any of the poultry, the yard should be kept free from English sparrows, and the poultry houses and grain boxes from rats and mice, which have been shown to carry the causative organism.
5. When it is desired to fatten birds for the market, begin to increase the rations gradually. Never attempt to fatten birds which, in successive weighings, show a loss of weight. Overfeeding does not cause blackhead, but frequently causes the sudden death of birds in which blackhead is present.
6. When birds have died of blackhead, their bodies should be promptly burned or buried in order to prevent the dissemination of the coccidia, either through the ravages of rats or skunks, or consequent to the natural processes of decay.
Symptoms. The abdomen becomes enlarged, hangs down at the back, and sometimes touches the ground.
Cause. Old layers are generally affected. The cause may be the strain of heavy laying, or may in cases be due to too much internal fat.
Treatment. No satisfactory treatment can be recommended and the bird had best be killed. Such birds should not be used for breeding purposes.
Symptoms. Bronchitis may be distinguished by the rattling in the throat of the bird affected and by the rapid breathing and cough. The rattling is due to mucus in the inflamed bronchial tubes. In bad cases, birds mope, refuse to eat, and soon die.
Cause. Bronchitis may develop from an ordinary cold, or may be due to sudden changes of temperature, or to exposure to rain, cold, and damp.
Treatment. Keep affected bird away from drafts and in a warm place; dose with Epsom salts (see page 9) and give soft food, e. g., bread, bran, and middlings, with milk. Wine of ipecacuanha has been recommended for cases in which breathing is very difficult owing to excessive inflammation.
Symptoms. Chickens affected stand by themselves with roughened plumage. There is a whitish diarrhea, and this disease can easily be mistaken for white diarrhea. (See page 92.) Post-mortem examination will show yellowish spots on the lungs, on the walls of the air sacs, and on the liver and other organs, due to infection by the aspergillus fungus. (See page 29.)
Cause. Infection by a species of the aspergillus fungus, the spores of which are probably inhaled. This fungus is common. The spores may be in the straw used for nests or for litter, or in the food, especially if it is at all moldy.
Treatment. There is no cure for an affected chicken, and the poultryman must aim at prevention. Vigorous sanitary measures are imperative. Clean straw or excelsior should be used for nests; eggs for hatching should be disinfected by wiping with 80% alcohol; incubators and brooders should be thoroughly disinfected.
Symptoms. Lameness with swelling on pad of foot.
Cause. Injury to sole of foot, developing into an abscess. Heavy birds are more subject than light ones to bumblefoot, especially if made to roost on perches that are too high.
Treatment. Paint with iodine. Lance the abscess if it is sufficiently advanced. Lower perches. Birds under treatment should have their feet bandaged, and should be put on deep straw to prevent further injury while the wounds are healing. Not serious if taken in hand promptly.
Symptoms. Distention of crop with soft pasty matter of a more or less offensive character.
Cause. Eating stale, putrifying food or some poisonous matter.
Treatment. Empty the bird’s crop by holding the head downwards and gently pressing the contents out through the mouth. Feed sparingly on soft food.
Symptoms. Small, scabby, wart-like growths and eruptions on the head, especially on the comb and the wattles and around the eyes—in bad cases extending to the lids and even the mouth. Chickens and young birds are most commonly attacked by this disease, which spreads rapidly.
Cause. The specific organism has not been definitely determined. Chicken pox may be started by the introduction of an infected bird, and mosquitoes and other insects are suspected of being agents in its spread.
Treatment. Prompt treatment may be very successful. Isolate affected birds. Apply tincture of iodine, first scraping off the scabs. Creolin 2%, or other disinfectants, may be used instead of iodine. Dirty coops are a contributing cause, and cleanliness of chicken runs and houses is important. Disinfect soil (see page 13) and woodwork (see page 12) regularly and with extra care when the first cases are noticed. When roupy lesions develop, as is sometimes the case, treat as for roup. (See page 83.)
Symptoms. Fowls die suddenly with apparently little reason. There are symptoms of diarrhea and examination shows that the feces are a bright yellow or green instead of the normal color. Before death, fowls have fever and may be seen moping and showing evidences of distress. For post-mortem symptoms see page 112.
Cause. A contagious disease, due to bacteria, that, owing to infection of soil and drinking water by birds suffering from the disease, spreads rapidly through a flock. It is often introduced by the purchase of an infected bird that appears at the time of purchase to be well.
Treatment. Prevention by strict sanitary measures is what must be aimed at. It is believed that no cure is known for genuine cases of cholera. Isolate all new birds brought into the flock, especially when cases of cholera are reported in the neighborhood. The bodies of birds that have died of this disease are best burnt without delay. The germ of cholera appears to be both persistent and easily spread, and too much stress cannot be laid on the necessity of preventing its introduction, failing that, of quickly stamping it out. The sacrifice of a few birds to prevent the spread of the disease will be well repaid, for it has been necessary on occasions to kill a whole flock. In some cases it has been found best to move unaffected birds to new quarters.
Fowl typhoid, or leukemia, is a disease of the blood that may be mistaken for cholera. The poultryman must treat it in the same way.
Symptoms. Frequent small discharges of excrement and unsuccessful efforts to discharge when the cloaca (Fig. 32) is empty, the mucous membrane of which becomes hot and inflamed. These symptoms are soon followed by an offensive discharge.
Cause. A specific disease transmitted from hen to hen by the agency of the cock.
Treatment. Immediately isolate affected hens; syringe out cloaca twice daily with 2% creolin; give mild purgative and put on soft food. Males likely to be affected should be examined, and diseased birds killed.
Caution. The hands should be carefully cleansed and disinfected, as a serious inflammation will result if the eyes are rubbed with infected hands. This is a troublesome and risky disease to treat.
Symptoms. The external symptoms are not very pronounced; there is loss of weight and in some cases diarrhea. The disease may last for a long time and birds may even recover. A post-mortem examination shows the walls of the cæca thickened and filled with a pasty mass, while characteristic whitish or yellowish spots (see Fig. 24, d) are found in the liver.
Cause. This disease is due to the same germ (a coccidium) that causes blackhead in turkeys. Adult fowls occasionally develop this disease, but appear to be able, as a rule, to act as a host for the germs without being themselves affected, although heavy losses occur among turkeys or chickens that get the germ from them.
Treatment. Copperas in the drinking water (three grains to a quart) has been recommended, together with the occasional use of calomel in one-grain doses, or one or two teaspoonfuls of castor oil. Thorough disinfection (see page 10) of houses and runs, etc., where affected fowls have been, is important. Burn the bodies of birds that die of the disease.
Symptoms. Discharge from the nostrils and the eyes, with occasional fits of sneezing; loss of appetite, and moping.
Cause. Cold and damp. Colds most frequently occur in wet weather and among poorly housed and poorly fed stock.
Treatment. Warm housing and protection from cold and wet. Give quinine—one grain to an adult fowl. Many believe in dosing fowls suffering from colds with 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. The term influenza, or grippe, is generally applied to a severe cold that has no symptoms of roup.
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.
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.
Symptoms. The crop is hard and swollen.
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 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:
Symptoms. 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.
Symptoms. Excessive looseness of 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 measures of disinfection must be undertaken. (See page 10.)
Symptoms. A cold, accompanied by whitish and yellowish patches on the back of the throat and in the mouth. These patches apparently form a false membrane and cannot be torn off without causing bleeding. The disease is sometimes known as canker.
Cause. This disease is often clearly a later stage of roup. It is difficult to say where one ends and the other begins. It has been claimed that the organism is the same as that which causes diphtheria in human beings, but the weight of evidence is against this conclusion.
Treatment. Diphtheria is extremely infectious. It is best to kill the first cases at once. If the bird is of particular value, it may be isolated and the patches on the throat swabbed with 50% hydrogen peroxide or 5% creolin, with a small bit of cotton wool wound around a stick. If great care is exercised, 20% carbolic acid or 20% creolin may be painted on the patches, but neither should be allowed to touch the normal skin. Burn the swabs. Treat accompanying roupy symptoms as recommended under roup.
The term canker is also applied to certain spots or growths that occur on the throat. These are not in any way associated with diphtheritic roup, or any dangerous, contagious disease, and are due to injury or to an unhealthy condition of the mucous membrane.
Symptoms. Distention of abdomen.
Cause. Collection of liquid in abdominal cavity.
Treatment. Treatment is seldom successful. It is best and most merciful to kill the afflicted bird. If it is desired to make an effort to save the bird, carefully puncture the lower portion of the abdomen with a trocar and squeeze out the liquid. Give invalid diet.
Symptoms. Severe diarrhea with blood in the discharges.
Cause. Bacterial or other specific infection of the intestines. Occasionally the eating of some poisonous or irritating substance will give rise to blood in the excrement.
Treatment. Isolate bird, and give six to eight drops of chlorodyne on a small piece of bread. Thorough disinfection (see page 10) of water, soil and house is necessary to prevent this disease spreading.
Symptoms. The hen goes on and off the nest straining to lay. Generally the egg may be felt through the vent. After straining for some time, she may succeed in laying the egg, and treatment should not be undertaken until it is evident that the fowl needs assistance.
Cause. Very young hens are more liable to this complaint, which arises from eggs of an abnormal size, from lack of muscular power, or from some other disorder of the oviduct.
Treatment. It will be most merciful to kill fowls in much distress, as treatment is tedious and painful to the fowl. It has been recommended to hold the fowl’s vent over steam from boiling water and then to pass an oiled finger up the vent. In bad cases, pierce the egg and withdraw the contents, then break the shell and remove all the pieces. Great care must be taken to leave no particle of the broken shell behind.
Symptoms. If remains of eggs are seen in nests or runs, the poultryman should become suspicious and make observations to prove whether any of his flock are eating eggs.
Cause. Broken eggs or soft-shelled eggs left about the yard may be the cause of hens acquiring this bad habit.
Treatment. All signs of broken eggs should always be immediately removed. The culprit, when detected, should be removed to a different pen and nest. Dark nests have been recommended. A trap nest will prevent a hen from getting at her egg.
Symptoms. In this disease of chickens the skin becomes puffed out in one or more places, generally on the neck. In rare cases the puffing spreads over nearly the whole of the body.
Cause. This disease is evidently caused by some obstruction of the air passages that forces the air to escape under the skin.
Treatment. Let out the air by puncturing the skin. Give soft and nourishing food. It will probably be wiser not to use birds that recover from this complaint for breeding stock.
Symptoms. The bird staggers about and has a fit. It may recover.
Cause. It is difficult to discover a cause; intestinal worms are suspected in some cases.
Treatment. If it is suspected that intestinal worms are responsible, try the treatment recommended for worms. (See page 95.)
Symptoms. More or less sudden deaths of birds in good condition. Post-mortem examination shows an enlarged liver and masses of fat attached to the intestines.
Cause. Something wrong with the diet; too much heat-giving food and want of exercise.
Treatment. Post-mortem proof of fatty degeneration in the flock should lead the poultry owner to change the diet, reducing the amount of heat-giving food, and giving more exercise. Some authors draw attention to a fatty degeneration in which the liver is shrunken and shows fat globules under the microscope.
Symptoms. Whitish scabs or crusts on the comb, the head and down the neck.
Cause. Due to a fungus that spreads, if not treated, and that probably starts where there is an abrasion of the skin.
Treatment. Treat in early stages of the disease by dressing with sulphur ointment. (See page 9.) Isolate bird. If the case has been neglected and allowed to develop, the crusts must first be moistened with oil and the surface scraped off with a blunt instrument. Then apply tincture of iodine or nitrate of silver.
Symptoms. The presence of bare patches and injured plumage on birds should lead the poultryman to watch for feather-eaters.
Cause. Irritation from insects, some defect in diet, or natural cussedness.
Treatment. Isolate the offender, and, if persistent and of no special value, kill, for fear the bad example may be followed by others. If several fowls develop this vice, try hanging up a bone for them to peck at and thus distract their attention.
Symptoms. Fleas are found on the fowls or in the straw of their nests.
Description. The flea that attacks fowls is known as the hen flea (Pulex gallinæ). It is dark colored and has sharp mouth parts. Doubtless it causes the fowl it attacks much irritation in addition to loss of blood.
Treatment. Keep poultry houses in a clean, sanitary condition. Dust the infested fowls with an insect powder or dip them in creolin, about 1%. Burn infested straw.
Broken bones of legs or wings can be mended by placing the bones back in their proper positions and binding with light splints. The splints may be removed in about four weeks. It will be found that shanks are easily set, but that broken wings give far more trouble.
If a fowl dislocates its leg or its wing, the joint should be gently pushed back into place.
Symptoms. Combs and wattles are most liable to frost bite, particularly in breeds in which these parts are large.
Cause. Exposure to very low temperatures, especially if birds are suddenly turned out from warm quarters; dipping comb and wattles in water when the temperature is low.
Treatment. Prevent by keeping birds as warm as possible during winter, and do not allow them to go out early in the mornings in very cold weather. Drinking water should be provided in a vessel from which birds can drink without wetting their wattles. In a case of frost bite, thaw the affected parts by gently rubbing with vaseline and afterwards treat with a mixture of two grains of salicylic acid to one ounce of vaseline or lard.
Symptoms. Frequent gaping and coughing; young chicks attacked, as a rule. Notice if any worms are coughed up by the chicken; if none can be found, but the gaping continues, put a stripped feather down the windpipe, as recommended under treatment, and see if any gape worms can be pulled up.
Cause. Small worms, red in color when engorged, which attach themselves to the mucous membrane of the windpipe. Affected birds cough up worms or ova, which infect the yard and sometimes the water supply. Earthworms taken from infested yards have been found to contain portions of gape worms, and may be one means of infecting poultry.
Treatment. Isolate attacked poultry and disinfect coops and yards. The worms may be extracted from the windpipe of a gaping chicken with a feather stripped nearly to the end, and moistened, but not dripping, with oil of turpentine. Hold the mouth open, push the feather down the windpipe, and give it a sudden twist, which will dislodge the worms and allow of their being drawn up. Fumigation by holding the bird’s head over an irritant vapor, such as that of carbolic acid poured into boiling water, is risky, but sometimes successful. If not cautiously done, much suffering may be inflicted on the bird.
Post-mortem. Cut open the windpipe and look for the worms, which may be easily recognized by Fig. 12. Male and female specimens will be found attached to one another.
Symptoms. This disease cannot be readily diagnosed while the fowl is living; it is generally associated with catarrh of the crop. (See page 37.) The symptoms are similar. Post-mortem examination will show the lining of the stomach in an inflamed condition.
Cause. The inflammation of the lining of the stomach is generally due to eating decomposing food or other poisonous matter.
Treatment. Empty the crop as recommended under Catarrh of the crop. Give one or two tablespoonfuls of castor oil and feed on soft and easily digested food with milk or barley water. Be sure that poultry are not allowed to run under trees that have been sprayed with arsenical poisons.
Symptoms. The bird sometimes loses weight, and as the disease develops shows stiffness and an indisposition to stand. In some cases small nodules containing crystals of urate of soda occur on the underside of the toes.
Cause. Failure of the kidneys to perform their normal functions and consequent accumulation of urates in the bird’s system in excessive quantities. Gout may be due to too concentrated feeding.
Treatment. Medicines and treatment are of little avail. Endeavor to prevent by feeding a mixed diet.
Post-mortem. In one form of this disease, known as visceral gout, the liver and other abdominal organs are covered over with a powder-like deposit of the crystals of urate of soda.
The heart is an organ that is subject to several serious diseases, but these cannot be detected with any certainty while the bird is living, and treatment cannot be recommended as likely to be successful. Post-mortem examination may show the following symptoms: