Roup Treatment.

Up to a week ago the chickens had been exceptionally well in every way.  Now they seem to have a cold and a running at the nose and with it a bad odor.  It was suggested that this might be the beginning of roup, but I see no swell-head.

The distinguishing characteristic of roup is not so-called “swell head” or other form of cold, but the offensive roupy odor.  When the cold has reached this stage it is a pronounced case of roup, and highly contagious.  Separate all the ailing fowls and segregate them in comfortable hospital quarters, warm but with one side partly open for fresh air.  Disinfect the quarters of the well fowls by spraying with distillate or cheap-grade coal oil and sprinkling the floors and about the houses with air-slaked lime.  Use some simple remedy like coal oil or permanganate of potash to cleanse the throat and nostrils.  With coal oil, first wipe the eyes and bill with a clean cloth dipped in the coal oil, then inject with a sewing-machine oil can enough coal oil to open and thoroughly clean out the nostrils.  If the throat is affected, give a tablespoonful of sweet oil and coal oil, half and half, two or three times a day until relieved.  One of our correspondents has sent us the following treatment with permanganate of potash which he has found the best roup remedy he has ever tried:  Dissolve 1 ounce of permanganate of potash in 3 pints of water, hold the fowl’s head in this for a second, then open the beak and rinse out the mouth in the solution.  Wipe with a clean, soft cloth and apply a very little witch hazel or carbolated salve to the eyes, nostrils and head.  Repeat the operation as often as the throat and head become clogged with mucus.  Until the disease is eliminated from the premises, keep permanganate of potash in the drinking water of all the fowls, both sick and well.  About 1 ounce to each 2 gallons of water or enough to give the water a claret color.  The sick fowls should be allowed no other feed but a little stimulating mash three times a day.  Where the fowls do not show a decided improvement in the course of a few days, or where the disease has assumed a violent form, all such birds should be killed and the bodies burned at once.

Bad Food for Chickens.

My chicks are about three weeks old and have always been strong and sturdy, but when taken sick first appear a little dumpish, then the head seems a little heavy and the neck lengthens out.  As the disease advances they become staggery.

Your chicks have eaten soured food, decayed vegetables or tainted meat.  Baby chicks are just like other babies and the same care should be used that their food be always sweet and fresh.  Wet food should never be given chicks, nor raw meat nor anything the least bit tainted or stale.  Put a teaspoon of coal oil in each pint of drinking water and see to it that the latter is kept pure and cool.  Mix a teacup of sulphur with enough bran or shorts for