USA > Ohio > Hancock County > The Farm journal illustrated rural directory of Hancock County, Ohio, 1916 > Part 24
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WOUNDS generally heal readily in the hog if kept clean and free from maggots. The result of neglected castration wounds is sometimes serious. Have the animal clean as possible when castrated, and endeavor to keep it clean and give opportunity for abundant exercise until wound is healed. There is probably nothing better and safer to apply to wounds of the hog than creolin one part, water six parts.
TRAVEL SICKNESS .- Similar to ordinary sea-sickness in man; very common in shipping pigs by wagon.
Symptoms .- Vomiting, diarrhea, great depression; seldom if ever fatal. May be rendered must less severe by very light feeding before shipment.
To Find the Amount of Wall Paper Required to Paper a Room
Measure the distance around the room deduct the width of cach window and door, take two-thirds of result. Divide this result by the number of strips that can be cut from each roll and you have the number of rolls required. A roll is generally a foot and a half wide, 24 feet long and contains 36 square feet, or 4 square yards.
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Poultry Diseases and Enemies (From the Biggle Poultry Book)
Many of the ills that poultry flesh is heir to are directly traceable to bad breeding and treatment. In-and-in- breeding is practiced and the law of the survival of the fittest is disregarded un- til the stock becomes weak and a prey to disease.
Yards and runs occupied for any con- siderable time become covered with ex- creta and a breeding ground for all man- ner of disease germs.
Dampness from leaky roofs or from wet earth floors, and draughts from side cracks, or from overhead ventilation slay their thousands yearly.
A one-sided diet of grain, especially corn, moldy grain or meal, decayed meat or vegetables, filthy water, or the lack of gritty material are fruitful sources of sickness.
In the treatment of sick birds much depends on the nursing and care. It is useless to give medicine unless some honest attempt be made to remove the causes that produce the disturbance. Un- less removed the cause will continue to operate and the treatment must be repeated.
It is an excellent plan to have a coop in some secluded place to be used ex- clusively as a hospital. If cases cannot be promptly treated it is better to use the hatchet at once and bury deeply, or burn the carcasses. This is the proper plan in every case where birds become very ill before they are discovered.
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· Sick birds should in no case be allowed to run with the flock and to eat and drink with them.
In giving the following remedies we make no pretence to a scientific handling of the subject.
FEVERS, from colds, fighting of cocks, etc. Symptoms : unusual heat of body, red face, watery eyes and watery dis- charge from nostrils.
Give dessertspoonful citrate of mag- nesia and, as a drink, ten drops of nitre in half a pint of water.
APOPLEXY AND VERTIGO, from overfeed- ing or fright. Symptoms: unsteady mo- tion of the head, running around, loss of control of limbs. Give a purgative and bleed from the large veins under wing. · PARALYSIS, from highly seasoned food and over stimulating diet. Symptoms : inability to use the limbs, birds lie help- less on their side. Treatment-The same as for apoplexy.
LEG WEAKNESS occurs in fast-growing young birds, mostly among cockerels. A fowl having this weakness will show it by squatting on the ground frequently and by a tottering walk. When not hereditary it usually arises from a diet that contains too much fat and too little flesh and bone-making material, such as bread, rice, corn and potatoes. To this should be added cut green bone, oats, shorts, bran and clover, green or dry. Give a tonic pill three times a day made of sulphate of iron, 1 grain; strychnine, 1 grain; phosphate of lime, 16 grains ; sulphate of quinine, 1/2 grain. Make into thirty pills.
CANKER OF THE MOUTH AND HEAD .--- The sores characteristic of this disease are covered with a yellow cheesy matter which, when it is removed, reveals the raw flesh. Canker will rapidly spread through a flock, as the exudation from the sores is a virulent poison, and well birds are contaminated through the soft feed and drinking water. Sick birds should be separated from the flock and all water and feed vessels disinfected by scalding or coating with lime wash. Ap- ply to sores with a small pippet syringe or dropper the peroxide of hydrogen. When the entire surface is more or less affected, use a sprayer. Where there is much of the cheesy matter formed, first remove it with a large quill before using the peroxide. A simple remedy is an application to the raw flesh of powdered alum, scorched until slightly brown.
SCALY LEG, caused by a microscopic in- sect burrowing beneath the natural scales of the shank. At first the shanks appear dry, and a fine scale like dandruff forms. Soon the natural scale disappears and gives place to a hard, white scurf. The disease passes from one fowl to another through the medium. of nests and perches, and the mother-hen infecting her brood. To prevent its spread, coat perches with kerosene and burn old nest- ing material and never use sitting hens affected by the disease. To cure, mix 1/2 ounce flowers of sulphur, 14 ounce carbolic acid crystals and stir these into 1 pound of melted lard. Apply with an old tooth brush, rubbing in well. Make applications at intervals of a week.
WORMS in the intestines of fowls indi- cate disturbed digestion. Loss of appe- tite and lack of thrift are signs of their presence. Give santonin in 2-grain doses
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six hours apart. A few hours after the second dose give a dessertspoonful of castor oil. Or, put 15 drops of spirits of turpentine in a pint of water and moisten the feed with it.
BUMBLE-FOOT, caused by a bruise in fly- ing down from perches or in some simi- lar manner. A small corn appears on the bottom of the foot, which swells and ulcerates and fills with hard, cheesy pus. With a sharp knife make a cross cut and carefully remove all the pus. Wash the cavity with warm water, dip the foot in a solution of one-fourth ounce sulphate of copper to a quart of water and bind up with a rag and place the bird on a bed of dry straw. Before putting on the bandage anoint the wound with the oint- ment recommended for scaly leg or coat it with iodine.
GAPES, caused by the gape-worm, a parasite that attaches itself to the wind- pipe, filling it up and causing the bird to gasp for breath. The worm is about three-fourths of an inch long, smooth and red in color. It appears to be forked at one end, but in reality each parasite is two worms, a male and female, firmly joined together. This parasite breeds in the common earth worm. Chicks over three months old are seldom affected. If kept off of the ground for two months after hatching, or on perfectly dry soil, or on land where affected chicks have never run, chicks will seldom suffer from the gapes. Old runs and infested soil should have frequent dressings of lime.
In severe cases the worms should be removed. To do this put a few drops of kerosene in a teaspoonful of sweet oil. Strip a soft wing feather of its web to within an inch of the tip, dip in the oil, insert feather in windpipe, twirl and withdraw. Very likely some of the para- sites and mucus will come with it. The rest will be loosened or killed, and event- ually thrown out. It may be necessary to repeat the operation.
To kill the worm in its lodgment, gum camphor in the drinking water or pellets of it as large as a pea forced down the throat is recommended. Turpentine in the soft feed, as advised in the treatment for worms in the intestines, is said to be ffective. Pinching the windpipe with ne thumb and finger will sometimes loosen the parasite.
When broods are quartered on soil known to be infested, air-slacked lime should be dusted on the floor of the coop, and every other night, for two or three weeks, a little of the same should
be dusted in the coop over the hen and her brood. To apply, use a dusting bel- lows and only a little each time.
CHOLERA is due to a specific germ, or virus, and must not be confounded with common diarrhœa. In genuine cholera ligestion is arrested, the crop remains full, there is fever and great thirst. The bird drinks, but refuses food and appears to be in distress. There is a thickening of the blood, which is made evident in the purple color of the comb. The dis- charges from the kidneys, called the urates, which in health are white, become yellowish, deep yellow, or, in the final stages, a greenish-yellow. The diarrhœa grows more severe as the disease pro- gresses. A fowl generally succumbs in two days. The virus of cholera is not diffusible in the air, but remains in the soil, which becomes infected from the discharges, and in the body and blood of the victims. It may be carried from place to place on the feet of other fowls or animals. Soil may be disinfected by saturating it with a weak solution of sul- phuric acid in water. Remove at once all well birds to new and clean quarters and wring the necks of all sick birds and burn their carcasses and disinfect their quarters.
For cases not too far gone to cure give sugar of lead, pulverized opium, gum camphor, of each, 60 grains, pow- dered capsicum (or fluid extract of cap- sicum is better, 10 drops), grains, 10. Dissolve the camphor in just enough al- cohol that will do so without making it a fluid, then rub up the other ingredients in the same bolus, mix with soft corn meal dough, enough to make it into a mass, then roll it and divide the whole into one hundred and twenty pills. Dose, one to three pills a day for grown chicks or turkey, less to the smaller fry. The birds that are well enough to eat should have sufficient powdered charcoal in their soft feed every other day to color it slightly, and for every twenty fowls five drops of carbolic acid in the hot water with which the feed in moistened.
ROUP .- The first symptoms are those of a cold in the head. Later on the watery discharge from the nostrils and eyes thickens and fills the nasal cavities and throat, the head swells and the eyes close up and bulge out. The odor from affected fowls is very offensive. It is contagious by diffusion in the air and by contact with the exudations from sick fowls. To disinfect houses and coops burn sulphur and carbolic acid in
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them after turning the fowls out and keep closed for an hour or two. Pour a gill of turpentine and a gill of carbolic acid over a peck of lime and let it be- come slaked, then scatter freely over the interior of houses and coops and about the yards.
For the first stages spray the affected flock while on the roost or in the coop with a mixture of two tablespoonfuls of carbolic acid and a piece of fine salt as big as a walnut in a pint of water. Re- peat two or three times a week. Or, if a dry powder is preferred, mix equal parts of sulphur, alum and magnesia and dust this in their nostrils, eyes and throat with a small powder gun. The nasal cavities should be kept open by injecting with a glass syringe or sewing machine oil-can a drop or two of crude petro- leum. A little should be introduced also through the slit in the roof of the mouth. Give sick birds a dessertspoon- ful of castor oil two nights in succession, and feed soft food of bran and corn meal seasoned with red pepper and pow- dered charcoal. A physician advises the following treatment: hydrastin, 10 grains ; sulph. quinine, 10 grains; capsi- cum, 20 grains. Mixed in a mass with balsam copaiba and made into twenty pills; give one pill morning and night; keep the bird warm and inject a satu- rated solution of chlorate potash in nos- trils and about 20 drops down the throat.
PIP, so-called, is not a disease but only a symptom. The drying and hardening of the end of the tongue in what is called "pip" is due to breathing through the mouth, which the bird is compelled to do because of the stoppage of the nostrils. By freeing the natural air passages the tongue will resume its nor- mal condition.
DIPHTHERIA is a contagious disease. The first symptoms are those of a com- mon cold and catarrh. The head be- comes red and there are signs of fever, then the throat fills up with thick, white mucus and white ulcers appear. The bird looks anxious and stretches its neck and gasps. When it attacks young chicks it is frequently mistaken for gapes. When diphtheria prevails, impregnate the drinking water with camphor, a tea- spoonful of the spirits to a gallon of water, and fumigate the house as recom- mended for roup.
Spray the throat with peroxide of hydrogen or with this formula: 1 ounce glycerine, 5 drops nitric acid, 1 gill water. To treat several birds at once with medi-
cated vapor, take a long box with the lid off, make a partition across and near to one end and cover the bottom with coal ashes. Mix a tablespoonful 'each of pine tar, turpentine and sulphur, to which add a few drops, or a few crys- tals, of carbolic acid and a pinch of gum camphor. Heat a brick very hot, put the fowls in the large part and the brick in the other, drop a spoonful of the mixture on the brick and cover lightly to keep the fumes in among the patients. Watch carefully, as one or two minutes may be all they can endure. Re- peat in six hours if required.
CROP-BOUND .- The crop becomes much distended and hard from obstruction of the passage from the crop to the giz- zard by something swallowed ; generally, it is long, dried grass, a bit of rag or rope. Relief may sometimes be af- forded by giving a tablespoonful of sweet oil and then gently kneading the crop with the hand. Give no food, ex- cept a little milk, until the crop is emptied. Wet a tablespoonful or more of pulverized charcoal with the milk and force it down the throat. Should the crop not empty itself naturally pluck a few feathers from the upper right side of it and with a sharp knife make a cut about an inch long in the outer skin. Draw this skin a little to one side and cut open the crop. · Remove its con- tents, being careful not to miss the ob- struction. Have a needle threaded with white silk ready, and take a stitch or two in the crop skin first, then sew up the outer skin separately. Put the pa- tient in a comfortable coop, and feed sparingly for a week on bran and meal in a moist state, and give but little water.
SOFT OR SWELLED-CROP arises from lack of grit, or from eating soggy and unwholesome food. The distended crop contains water and gas, the bird is fever- ish and drinks a great deal. By holding it up with its head down the crop will usually empty itself. When this is done give teaspoon doses of charcoal slightly moistened twice at intervals of six hours. Restrict the supply of water and feed chopped onions and soft feed in moder- ation.
EGG-BOUND, DISEASES OF THE OVIDUCT. Overfat hens are often troubled in this way. Forcing hens for egg production will sometimes break down the laying machinery. Give green food, oats,"little · corn, and no stimulating condiments. Let the diet be plain and cooling in its
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nature. To relieve hens of eggs broken in the oviduct, anoint the forefinger with sweet oil and deftly insert and draw out the broken parts. When the hen is very fat and the egg is so large it cannot be expelled, the only way to save the hen is to break the egg and remove it as above directed.
WHITE-COMB OR SCURVY, caused by crowded and filthy quarters and lack of green food. The comb is covered with a white scurf. This condition some- times extends over the head and down the neck, causing the feathers to fall off.
Change the quarters and diet, give a dose of castor oil and follow this with a half a teaspoonful of sulphur in the soft food daily.
RHEUMATISM AND CRAMP caused by cold and dampness. Chicks reared on bottom-heat brooders are particularly subject to these troubles. Damp earth floors and cement floors in poultry houses produce it in older birds.
Give dry and comfortable quarters, feed little meat, plenty of green food, and soft feed seasoned with red pepper.
DIARRHEA of chicks with clogging of the vent. Remove the hardened excre-
tion and anoint the parts. Chamomilla is useful in this complaint, a few drops in drinking water.
FROSTED COMB AND WATTLES .- As soon as discovered bathe with compound tinc- ture of benzoin.
FOR LICE on perches, walls and coops, use kerosene or lime wash. To make the lime-wash more effective, pour a little crude carbolic acid on the lime before slaking or mix with plenty of salt.
For use in nests, pour crude carbolic acid on lime and allow it to air-slake. Put one or two handfuls of the car- bolized lime dust in the nest box.
Pyrethrum powder kills by contact and is effective for dusting in nests, and through the feathers of birds. Its judi- cious use in the plumage and nests of sitting hens will insure immunity from lice for the hen and her young brood.
Chicks and poults are often killed by large lice that congregate about the head, throat, vent and wings. To de- stroy them, soak fish berries in alcohol, take the birds from under the mothers at night and slightly moisten the down of the infested parts with the poison.
How to Preserve Eggs
Now that eggs are dearer as a rule than they have been for years, many people are inquiring about the methods of preserving them. The old way was to pack them in salt or lime. This served the purpose, but it gave the eggs a very strong taste.
The approved method now is the one which calls for the use of "water glass," or silicate of soda. This is a thick, syrupy liquid which can be had at most drug stores for about 10 cents a pound, and a pound is enough to treat five dozen eggs, so that the cost of preserving is about two cents a dozen.
There are several grades of water glass, and it is wise to get the best. To prepare the solution, stir one part of the silicate of soda into sixteen parts of water which has been boiled, cooled and carefully measured.
It is essential to have the eggs fresh, or the experiment will not be a great success. Those over three days old should not be used, as the air has already had a chance to penetrate them. The very best way is to keep the solution made up ready and put the eggs into it just as soon as they are brought in from the nests, if you have your own chickens.
It is worse than useless to try to pre- serve eggs that are not fresh or that have been cracked or washed.
Incubation and Gestation Tables
Chickens 20-22 days
Geese 28-34 days
Ducks 28 days
Turkeys 27-29 days
Guinea fowls.
28 days
Pheasants
25 days
Ostriches 40-42 days
The period of gestation in animals varies considerably, but the following is an average period based on a long series of observations :
Elephant 2 years
Camel 11-12 months
Ass 12 months
Mare
11 months
Cow
9 months
Sheep
5 months
Goat 5 months
Pig 31/2 months
Bitch
9 weeks
Cat
8 weeks
Rabbit .30 days
Guinea pig
65 days
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Horse Ailments (From the Biggle Horse Book)
The majority of horse ailments may be traced, directly or indirectly, to im- proper feeding and watering, careless management in the stable and in harness. A careless driver is a very frequent cause of loss.
There is no reason why a first-class team, six to eight years old, should not serve continuously and satisfactorily for a term of twelve to sixteen years, if properly protected, fed and looked out for.
If, from improper care or feeding, or from some unavoidable cause, your horse is out of condition, you should dose him with little medicine and much common sense.
The horse that allows himself to be caught lying down may be considered out of condition or lacking sufficient nutritious food. A quart of linseed meal divided into three feeds and added to his grain daily will do him much good and help a quick shedding of the coat.
BLINDNESS .- Consult a skilled veteri- narian at once.
BOTS .- The bot-fly resembles a honey- bee in size, and in late summer deposits eggs of a yellowish color on the hair of the horse's breast, legs, etc. In try- ing to bite at these eggs, the animal gets some of them in his mouth and throat. The eggs soon hatch and the larvæ attach themselves eventually to the lining of the stomach, and are then called "bots." They remain in the stom- ach until the following spring. Of course, the presence of these pests causes more or less irritation, but, as a rule, no serious harm is done in ordinary instances. Contrary to popular belief, bots do not eat holes through a horse's stomach. We do not know of any treat- ment that will remove bots. Prevention should be the horse owner's main re- liance. Kill the flies whenever pos- sible; hang pieces of red cloth from the halter throat-latch, so that the shaking of the head when a horse is in pasture may serve to frighten the flies away; and scrape off, from time to time, any eggs which are found on the horse.
BROKEN-WIND .- See Heaves.
CAPPED HOCK .- May be reduced in the same manner as Wind Galls (which see).
CHOKING .- Horses that choke thrust out their heads, bend and stretch the neck, while there is a copious flow of saliva from the mouth. In some cases
there is distention of the gullet on the left side of the neck, if it has descended so far. If it be in the upper part of the gullet a man accustomed to giving balls may be able to reach it with his hand. Obstructions that have got lower down may be moved upward gently from the outside. Sometimes an obstruction is soft and may be crushed small enough for the animal to swallow it. A mass of meal or other impacted food is some- times removed by frequent drinks of water, and a drench of olive or cotton seed oil can do no harm. The plan of reaching a whip or heavy piece of rope down the gullet to push the substance into the stomach is risky, in the hands of one not accustomed to the anatomy of the horse.
CHOKING DISTEMPER. - This disease prevails at times in many parts of the country. It is sometimes called spinal meningitis or putrid sore throat. The animal often falls down paralyzed, can- not arise, and if left prostrate is almost sure to die. He must be got upon his feet, and if he cannot stand must be swung. A majority of cases are fatal. It is caused by some specific poison taken into the system with food or drink, mostly the former. Dirty man- gers, rotting roots or meal, and mouldy hay, especially meadow hay, are usually the media by which the disease is ac- quired. The moral is to have every- thing sweet and clean that the animal eats and drinks, and have no decayed matter in the entry or in any other part of the barn. (See Distemper.)
COCKED ANKLE .- See Knuckling.
COFFIN-JOINT LAMENESS. - Same as Navicular Disease (which see).
COLIC, SPASMODIC .- This begins sud- denly. The horse stamps impatiently, looks backward, soon paws, and then rolls. After an interval of ease the pains return with increased severity. Give chloral hydrate, one ounce, in half a pint of water as a drench; or ether and laudanum, two ounces each, in lin- seed oil, half a pint; or sulphuric ether and alcohol, two ounces of each in eight ounces of water. If nothing else is handy, give of whiskey half a pint in hot water. If not relieved in one hour repeat any of the doses prescribed. The body should be warmly clothed and sweating encouraged. Dip blankets in hot water containing a small quantity
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of turpentine, and hold them in place under the body with dry blankets, or rub the abdomen with stimulants or mustard water. If cramp is due to irri- tation in the bowels, a cure is not com- plete until a physic of aloes, one ounce ; or linseed oil, one pint, is given. Soapy or salt water aids the cure when used. as an injection.
COLIC, WIND .- Is caused by feeding after a long fasting, or when the animal is exhausted by driving, or by new grain or hay, too much grain fed, or by sour or indigestible food. The horse seems dull, paws, and the pains are continuous. The belly enlarges, and when struck in front of the haunches sounds like a drum. If not soon relieved, difficult breathing, sweating, staggering and death follow. Give alkalines to neutralize the gases formed. No simple remedy is better than common baking soda, two to four ounces. If this fails, give chloride of lime in half-ounce doses, or the same quantity of carbonate of am- monia dissolved and diluted with oil or milk, until relieved. Chloral hydrate is particularly useful in both wind and spasmodic colic. Horsemen would be wise to keep it ready for emergencies. Physic should be given in flatulent colic, and turpentine, one to two ounces, with linseed oil, eight ounces, frequently, to stimulate the motion of the bowels. Colic should not be neglected nor the patient left, until you are certain of cure or death.
COUGH .- If a horse coughs, dampen his hay, wet his mixed feed, keep him out of a draught; after exercise blanket him. (See Heaves.)
CRIBBING OR WIND-SUCKING .- This is a bad habit, rather than a disease. The horse bites his manger or other con- venient object, sucks air and makes a peculiar grunting noise. Prevention aids a cure. Iron mangers and stable fittings are a great help; or box stalls containing no projecting wooden objects.
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