Liver Disease
There are several different diseases that affect the liver, but since the external symptoms, causes and treatment are the same for all of them, it is of no practical value to differentiate between them.
Liver disease is caused by insufficient exercise, confinement in damp quarters, and too rich feed. Therefore it is not so common in Summer and Fall, and is most common in the Spring after the fowl have been more or less confined during the winter.
Symptoms.—The fowl die often with little apparent reason, but on examination the liver will be found either too large or too small, or in other unnatural condition.
Treatment.—Plenty of open air exercise, with green feed will gradually get the flock back in shape, except perhaps for a few in which the disease has already gone too far to stop it.
Moulting
We should take into consideration the great drain upon the system of fowls in moulting. Not only are the ordinary wastes of the body to be maintained, but the old summer coat of feathers is to be discarded and an entirely new one to be produced, involving in its growth all the essential elements of which the feathers are composed. If these substances—lime, carbon, sulphur, silex, etc.—are not to be had in the food provided for them, or are imperfectly produced or eliminated, the work drags and the organism suffers, and waste of flesh, poverty of the system or illness is the result. Hence it is a wise precaution, during the season of moulting, to allow the flock a more generous supply of food, and of better quality than usual, and to exercise more than ordinary care in housing and shelter. Fowls that have fair feed and a reasonable range will rarely require special care, but those confined are more apt to suffer. Any stimulating food is of advantage. Hemp seed is very beneficial, and iron is invaluable. An acetate of iron may be readily made by putting some nails or other bits of iron in cider. This, after standing a day or two, may be used in mixing the feed. More cider may be added as required, and so the cider and iron may be kept and used during the entire moulting season. The I.I., is the proper remedy, and should also be given two or three times per week, or even more frequently if the birds are suffering much.
A little care and attention in this respect will shorten the period of moulting and bring the birds out in better health and vigor and better plumage.
Pip or Chirp
Young chickens are affected by a peculiar form of disease termed pip or chirp, from the short, spasmodic chirups which they make during the complaint. The chickens mope about uttering this peculiar cry, and seek refuge in solitary places, as it is the instinct of animals and birds to pick at, maim or destroy the sick or maimed among them. The chicken is hot and feverish, although trembling violently, and they are extremely tender on being handled, and soon a dark-colored, dry, horny scale will be found at the end of the tongue, and the beak may turn yellow at the base; the appetite fails and the plumage becomes ruffled, and they gradually sink and die. It is doubtless caused by exposure to wet weather, as the light down is easily saturated, and is long in drying. The A.A., may be given at first, one or two doses, and afterwards the J.K., three times per day. The removal of the scale at the end of the tongue is of no consequence. That is not the cause of the disease, but the result, and the tongue will come all right so soon as the chick is restored in his circulation and digestion. Of course the birds should be well housed and fed on soft food.