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.
CLOACITIS OR VENT-GLEET
Not a common disease
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.
COCCIDIOSIS OF ADULT FOWLS
The germ of this disease does not usually affect adult fowls seriously, but causes severe losses among chickens and turkeys
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.