Pip, a dry scale on the tongue, is not a disease, but the symptom of some disease, being only analogous to "a foul tongue" in human beings. Do not scrape the tongue, nor cut off the tip, but cure the roup, diarrhœa, bad digestion, gapes, or whatever the disease may be, and the pip will disappear.
Roup is caused by exposure to excessive wet or very cold winds. It begins with a slight hoarseness and catching of the breath as if from cold, and terminates in an offensive discharge from the nostrils, froth in the corners of the eyes, and swollen lids. It is very contagious. Separate the fowl from the others, keep it warm, add some "Douglass Mixture" (see "[Moulting]") to its water daily, wash its head once or twice daily with tepid water, feed it with meal, only mixed with hot ale instead of water, and plenty of green food. Mr. Wright advises half a grain of cayenne pepper with half a grain of powdered allspice in a bolus of the meal, or one of Baily's roup pills to be given daily. Mr. Tegetmeier recommends one grain of sulphate of copper daily. Another advises a spoonful of castor-oil at once, and a few hours afterwards one of Baily's roup pills, and to take the scale off the tongue, which can easily be done by holding the beak open with your left hand, and removing the scale with the thumbnail of your right hand; with a pill every morning for a week. If not almost well in a week it will be better to kill it.
The Thrush may be cured by washing the tongue and mouth with borax dissolved in tincture of myrrh and water.
Paralysis generally affects the legs and renders the fowl unable to move. It is chiefly caused by over-stimulating food. There is no known remedy for this disease, and the fowl seldom if ever recovers. Although chiefly affecting the legs of fowls, it is quite a different disease from [Leg Weakness].
Vertigo results from too great a flow of blood to the head, and is generally caused by over-feeding. Pouring cold water upon the fowl's head, or holding it under a tap for a few minutes, will check this complaint, and the bird should then be purged by a dose of castor-oil or six grains of jalap.
[Moulting.]
All birds, but especially old fowls, require more warmth and more nourishing diet during this drain upon their system, and should roost in a warm, sheltered, and properly-ventilated house, free from all draught. Do not let them out early in the morning, if the weather is chilly, but feed them under cover, and give them every morning warm, soft food, such as bread and ale, oatmeal and milk, potatoes mashed up in pot-liquor, with a little pepper and a little boiled meat, as liver, &c., cut small, and a little hempseed with their grain at night. Give them in their water some iron or "Douglass Mixture," which consists of one ounce of sulphate of iron and one drachm of sulphuric acid dissolved in one quart of water; a teaspoonful of the mixture is to be added to each pint of drinking water. This chalybeate is an excellent tonic for weakly young chickens, and young birds that are disposed to outgrow their strength. It increases their appetite, improves the health, imparts strength, brightens the colour of the comb, and increases the stamina of the birds. When chickens droop and seem to suffer as the feathers on the head grow, give them once a day meat minced fine and a little canary-seed.