Some good authorities recommend painting the cankers with lemon juice and putting a piece of alum in the drinking water, but we prefer the peroxide of hydrogen treatment. Do not return a bird to the loft until it is entirely well, and always disinfect the loft when a case of canker is found in it. Directions for disinfecting are given further on in this chapter.
If the disease does not respond quickly to treatment, it is sometimes best to turn the affected birds out of the fly and let them shift for themselves without restraint. The open air and scanty supply of food together with whatever they are able to find of nature's remedies will effect a cure in nearly every case. Sometimes a bird will leave and never return but just as well this loss as to kill the bird, or have others in the fly affected. By this method I have often cured young birds just beginning to shift for themselves and older breeders in the last stages of Canker and when the bird is entirely recovered from the disease it may easily be caught and returned to the loft without endangering the rest.
ROUP
Roup sometimes appears in a loft, especially during damp weather or when the birds have not had proper housing. It is shown by the discharge from the nostrils, which has a very offensive odor. It is highly contagious in its later stages, and if not cured before it takes on the contagious form is incurable. When a bird has reached the last stages it should be killed and burned or buried far from the loft.
If a bird is noticed to have a discharge from the nostrils it should be attended to at once as the disease is very easy to cure at that time. Put some coal oil in a sewing machine can and squirt some of the oil up each nostril and in the slit in the top of the mouth. This usually effects a cure, but if it is not better in a few hours use camphorated oil in the same way. Any druggist will supply the camphorated oil.
CHOLERA
Cholera is a dreadful disease to contend with, but no pigeon-breeder who keeps his birds properly need fear it, as it is caused by cold, dampness and filth in nine cases out of ten. It is very contagious and it is very hard to cure. Happily, the disease does not worry the careful breeder, but once it gets started in a loft it may kill off every bird in it unless vigorous measures are taken to stop its progress.
When a bird is attacked with cholera it presents a very miserable appearance. Its plumage is ruffled up, its crop fills with water which has a very offensive odor, and diarrhoea appears. The disease runs its course rapidly and soon the victim is dead.
To stop the progress of cholera in a loft, put ten drops of carbolic acid in a gallon of drinking water for two days. Feed only the very best feed. Follow the carbolic acid by putting a tablespoonful of tincture of gentian in each gallon of drinking water for ten days. Disinfect the house thoroughly twice a week until the disease disappears.