Croup, from the similarity of its name is often confounded with Roup, from which, however, it is perfectly distinct, being inflammation of the wind-pipe, the symptoms are a difficulty of breathing and a rattling or peculiar noise in the throat, this, in some cases, is even musical; sometimes thick glairy mucus is coughed up, but there is never any swelling of the face or discharge from the nostrils, the disease is most frequent in damp weather, and yields readily to warm dry housing, and one-twelfth of a grain of tartar emetic.
Inflammation of the lungs is known by a difficulty of breathing, but without the noise of croup, the same treatment with tartar emetic is advisable.
Consumption, arising from the presence of scrofulous matter in the lungs, is produced by cold, damp, bad food, and is also inherited from parents; this disease being hereditary, it is worse than useless to attempt to cure fowls that are affected, as the chicken are certain to be tainted with the disease.
Pip is the name given to a dry horny scale which appears on the tongue, in all those diseases in which the fowl becomes feverish; it is only a symptom of internal fever and not a disease itself, the remedy is to remove the real disease causing it.
Gapes in chicken is caused by peculiar parasitic worms adhering to the inside of the windpipe; they are readily removed by stripping a small quill of its side feather, except an inch of the end, dipping it in spirits of turpentine, and inserting it in the wind-pipe; but as this remedy often excites fatal inflammation, I have suggested fumigation with the vapour of turpentine, by shutting the chicken up in a box, with some shavings moistened with the spirit, as long as they can withstand the action of the vapour, and the remedy has been found very successful.
Diseases of the Digestive Organs are simple in their treatment. A fowl sometimes becomes crop-bound from overdistending that organ; warm water poured down the throat frequently loosens the mass; but, if necessary, a perpendicular incision may be made at the upper part of the swelling sufficiently large to extract the swollen food, and it will be found to close again without the slightest difficulty; the fowl should, however, be kept on soft food for several days afterwards. Inflammation of the stomach, which is situated between the crop and the gizzard, is a very frequent cause of death in highly fed fowls—they mope, refuse to eat, pine away, and die; there is no cure for the disease, but it is readily prevented by the use of natural food—peas, greaves, hemp seed, being rigorously excluded.
In Diarrhœa, five grains of chalk, two grains of cayenne, and five grains of powdered rhubarb may be given, and if the discharge is not speedily checked, a grain of opium and the same quantity of ipecacuanha may be administered every four or six hours.
Diseases of the Egg Organs.—The most important disease of these organs is inflammation of the egg passage, shewn by the laying of soft or imperfect eggs; this complaint is readily remedied by giving one grain of calomel and one-twelfth of a grain of tartar emetic, made into a pill with meal; sometimes soft eggs arise from a deficiency of lime, in which case, a little old mortar rubbish remedies the defect.
The calomel and tartar emetic, which I first recommended for this disease in the Cottage Gardener, has been frequently given in other diseases, such as inflammation of the stomach, &c., and I need scarcely say with the effect of aggravating the evil very materially; there is no universal poultry medicine.
Disease of the ovary, or organ in which the yolks are formed, is not unfrequent, when the comb and wattles become like those of the cock, and the hen crows frequently; such birds are generally but erroneously termed hen-cocks, they must not be confounded with the hen-feathered cocks spoken of in the article on Hamburghs.