If a bird is so ill as not to eat or drink, and the Remedy must be given by hand, the mouth may be gently opened and two or three drops of the mixture, made in the proportion of one drop of the Remedy to a teaspoonful of water, may be turned down, or the fluid may be turned on soft food and thus given, at the intervals mentioned under each separate disease.
Bread soaked in milk or water, cooked cracked wheat or curdled milk is, in general, the best food for sick or ailing fowls.
Aspergillosis—Brooder Pneumonia
This disease affects both the adult birds and the young chickens often causing serious loss among the latter.
The disease is caused by a fungus or mold which grows on straw, grain, etc., and is either inhaled in breathing or swallowed by the chicken; it sticks to the air passages and grows there as it did on the straw or grain, in small, yellow patches.
Symptoms.—In the adult fowl, the first symptoms are apt to pass unnoticed, these are loss of appetite and increased thirst, then the fowl loses weight; the breathing becomes labored and is accompanied by a rattle in the throat from the mucus which collects. This keeps on getting worse until the bird dies.
In young chickens the first symptoms are a sleepy and lifeless appearance and drooping wings. This is followed by rapid breathing and rattle in the throat and white diarrhea, which may be mistaken for the disease of that name (see page [269]).
This disease may be mistaken for Anemia or Tuberculosis in the adult, or White Diarrhea in the chicken, and the only sure way is to kill a bird and examine the air passages and lungs; which will be found covered with patches of white or greenish-yellow membrane.
Treatment.—There is no cure for this disease and we must rely on prevention. Kill all affected birds and thoroughly disinfect the quarters, and be very careful not to give moldy grain or use moldy straw.