Diagnosis. From fowl cholera this may be distinguished by the fact that it is confined to one farm or flock of turkeys, chickens or ducks, proving most deadly in early summer, to the broods of the same spring, and at the commencement of the epizootic, and proving less and less so as time passes. The immunity of rabbits even when inoculated is a further distinguishing feature. From intestinal parasitism it is distinguished by the color of the discharges, and the absence of worms and their eggs from these liquids.
Mortality is often very high. Klein found it 80 per cent.
Prevention. Remove the infected from the flock (with ordinary fowl it is often best to kill and burn or bury them), keep the poultry house and yard scrupulously clean of droppings and sprinkle it occasionally with a 3 per cent. solution of sulphuric acid. The poultry house may be fumigated with sulphur (1 ounce to the cubic yard), or the walls and roosts may be washed with a solution (1:12) of bisulphide of carbon in liquid vaseline. The diseased must be removed as soon as they are detected and food and water must be given pure. If pure water is not available, boil it or render it acid by sulphuric acid (1:33), and feed grain, cooked roots, bran and bread with more or less green food.
In the case of valuable birds immunization may be secured by inoculating with the virulent blood or culture so diluted that not more than one or two of the germs shall be inserted in each case or the virulent liquid may be heated for 20 minutes to a temperature of 55° C (121° F) and then injected in a dose of 2 drops.
Treatment. If it is decided to treat the sick they should be placed together in safe seclusion from all others. Feed with mush or cooked roots or vegetables adding salol ½ dr. naphthol 1 dr. and quinia 1 dr. to the food of 15 or 20 fowls. Nitrate of bismuth and powdered charcoal may be added in moderate quantities. As drink give water containing 2% of sulphuric acid. Antiseptic enemata may be added in the case of very valuable birds, salol, naphthol, boric acid, salicylate of soda, or solution of carbolic acid or creosote. Stimulants and tonics are highly esteemed by some, and Cadeac recommends the free use of the following mixture: powdered fennel, anise, coriander and quinia of each 5 drs., gentian 10 drs., ginger 12 drs., ferric sulphate 2½ drs.
COCCIDIAN ENTERITIS IN CATTLE. COCCIDIOSIS. RED DYSENTERY.
Definition. Distribution: Switzerland in summer. Causes: weakness, debility, youth, cold, heats, spoilt fodder, protozoa, coccidium oviforme, coccidium perforans. Lesions: reddening, thickening and desquamation of alimentary mucosa and lungs, congested mesenteric glands, liver and spleen, coccidia in discharge and epithelium, staining, anæmia. Symptoms: chill, fever, grinding teeth, fœtid diarrhœa becoming bloody, tenesmus, stiffness, red ulcerated rectum, emaciation, false membranes. Duration: death in one to fourteen days or more. Complications. Diagnosis by coccidia. Prevention: avoidance of affected soils, water and fodder. Treatment: antiseptic, by mouth and as enemata, demulcents. Flesh safely eaten by man. Coccidium bigeminum in dogs, coccidium oviforme in rabbits, coccidium tenellum and gregarina avium intestinalis in birds.
Definition. Enteritis affecting chiefly the colon and rectum, and due to the presence of the protozoa, coccidium oviforme, and coccidium perforans.
Distribution. This affection was found in 1885 in the cantons of Berne, Lucerne and Argovi where it attacked 5 per cent. of the cattle and destroyed from 2 to 4 per cent. of those that suffered. It prevailed mainly in the summer (May to October) on the pastures, though not unknown at other seasons. Sucking calves were immune and the ages of a year to two and a half years were the main sufferers.
Causes. Predisposing causes embrace such as induce weakness or debility, youth, low condition, cold intemperate weather, extreme heats, musty or spoilt fodders.