Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-05-29
GAPES.

Disease In Chickens Which IL Likely to
result Disastrously Unless Heroically
Treated.
The disease known as gapes causes a
great mortality among young chickens.
1t gives rise also to more diversity of
opinion among poultry keepers and
discussion and error than any
trouble OF the poultry yard. Others
thai poultry keepers also take a hand
iii the discussion, and it is amusing to
read the views of persons who never
kept a fowl upon this subject. For ex-
ample, it has recently been charged
upon the i%noffensive earthworm that it
Is the agent by which the gapeworm is
carried into the stomachs of the
chickens; that the earthworms swallow
the eggs OF the gapeworm, and these
which the fowls are infected. It is
quite sufficient to note that this is a
gratultous md mistaken assumption.
and at variance with the known habits
OF the gapeworm, which has been in
yestigated thoroughly by scores of
competent naturalists, from Siebold
downward. The worm belongs to the
family Of Strongyla, or threadworms,
and various species of it infest turkeys,
quail, pheasants, rabbits, calves, lambs,
and pigs, as we'll as chickens, and
some of these do not eat earthworms.
These orr infest the throat and
bronchial tubes, causing an efusion of
froth and mucus which interfere with
the breathing, and so impair the blood
and produce anemia and finally suffoca-
ton. In calves the disease is called
"husk" Or chooses" in lambs, '.pin-
ing" and in fowls, 'gapes." And
these disorders in every case appear
only when the young animals follow
the older one and feed upon the same
ground. To avoid this exposure is in
every case a complete protection.
These facts should ef~fectually dispose
Of the charge against the innocent
earthworm. 1t might, perhaps, be
| quite sufficient to rest our case here, as
the lawyers say, and be satisfied with
having given a satisfactory "a of
prevention, but it is not every poultry
keeper who car take these precaution-
ary measures, and some more particu-
lar suggestions may be useful.
The disease appears in the chickens
Ut a very early age, and is then quickly
fatal. The little creatures cape and
open their jaws and gasp for breath. If
at this time one is taken up and a loop
Of horse hair or a soft vane of a feather
is put into the throat and twisted as it
is withdrawn, a quantity of sticky froth
is seem, and in this, upon close exami-
nation, some very small white worms
i Syi1I b1 fD,,~ Tl,@~o ~,r Al~
worms. The mature worms inhabit
the stomachs und intestines of the old
fowls, and unless plentiful cause no in
convenience. When they are abundant
they produce various disorders, as
cramps, d%iarrhea, moping, and some
changes in the blood, which are at
times fatal. But usually the more Wig
orous birds suffer nothing worse than
occasional fits of sneezing and cough
ing. These worms produce an enor-
nous number of very minute eggs,
being filled from end to end with them.
When fully grown and pregnant, the
females. which are much larger than
the males, die and are voided in the
excrements. 1t is not unusual to see
fowls and growing chickens kept with
older fowls, scratching and picking
among the droppings, and it is the eggs
of these worms which are picked up;
and in this way the young chicks be-
come infested with the pests. Some
thing more than to provide fresh, clean
ground then is required. One precau-
ton is to exercise perfect cleanliness in
the house, to remove the manure at
least once a week, and to scatter fresh
air-slaked lime under the roosts. This
will in time wholly rid the house and
yard of these pests, and a v all future
trouble. Another safeguard is to
keep the yards dug over or
plowed; have two yards, using
these alternately, and have some
crop growing on the ground. An
other is to put the coops with the chicks
on a grass plot or lawn, or in the gar
den among the vegetables, where the
soil is clean and fresh, and with all of
these the flock will be perfectly insured
against all trouble. Having been used
to exercise all these safeguards for
many years, we have had entire ex-
emption from these pests, although at
times we have had more than a thou
sand chicks, and rarely less than a
hundred or two, at one time.
Where the pests prevail the easiest
remedy is the use of lime, dry-slacked,
with water to which some carbolic acid
has been added. A bushcl of lime will
be reduced to a fine dry powder by alb
sorbing twenty-seven pounds or about
twelve quarts of water, and one pound
of carbolic acid is sufficient for this
quantity. When gapes are found to be
present in the flock a quantity of this
c%arbo2ated lime should lime should be
freely scattered over the floor of the
chicken house before dusk; the roosts
should also be we'll busted. In coming
in to roost the fowls will disturb the
fine lime and raise a considerable dust,
which they will breathe. The acrid
powder will cause them to cough and
eject the parasites, which. are destroyed
by the lime dust, and in two or three
efforts in this way the fowls will be en-
tirely freed from them. And where
there are no cape worms there will be
no gapes among the chicks, in spite Of
any abundance of earth worms. And
;,:+ boro in conclusion I'VE miUht EaV