Margaret Mahaney Talks About TurkeysMahaney, Margaret
Science
Margaret Mahaney Talks About Turkeys
Mahaney, Margaret
Turkeys
She was an extremely sick bird. I took her into the house, placed
her in the back hall, in a cast-off oval shaped clothes basket. I
put soft burlap under her and wrapped her up warmly. I had a good
knowledge of homeopathic remedies, and I started to cure bowel
and liver troubles. The fever I kept down with aconite by giving
a drop in a little water every hour. I stayed by the side of that
turkey all night long. There were times when she would scream
with pain, and then I placed her feet in water as hot as she
could bear it with plenty of mustard in it, and allowed the water
to come up as high as the first joint of her legs. I allowed her
to stand in that about ten minutes at a time, and then I dried
her feet and legs and placed her back in the basket. She would be
very weak after this treatment, but seemed easier. At other times
she would become weak and lifeless, and I would then take her up
in my arms, go out-of-doors and let her have the benefit of the
cool air. The fight went on in this way until four o’clock in the
morning, when she opened her eyes, raised her head, looked up at
me and chirped a little. I decided then and there that there was
such a thing as curing blackhead.
I did not know then so much about the stoppage in the bowels. I
did know, however, that nothing had passed through her bowels. I
gave her a little warm whisky and milk, some more of my remedies,
and then went for a couple of hours’ rest myself. When I went to
her again about two hours afterward, the red had begun to flow
back into her head, the fever had left her, and her pulse was
normal. The pulse of a turkey begins to beat just above the crop
and in case of death, will gradually creep up until, just before
the breath leaves the bird, it will have reached a point under
the throat. I kept the pulse in this bird down to the middle of
the neck; I never let it get any further. There were times when I
had to place a cloth dipped in ice water on her head, but I was
fighting for the life of my little pet, and she seemed to realize
what I was doing. She was very weak all the morning. I took her
up, placed her out on the lawn in the sun, and she staggered to
her feet about twelve o’clock of that day, and then a solid core
came from her bowels. This had lodged in the cecum. At that time
I knew very little about this trait of the disease. Attached to
the core was a part of the lining of the intestine. The turkey
hen was very weak for days. One thing in her favor was that she
had an empty crop, and I immediately fed her a tablespoonful of
cold water in which was dissolved four grains of common alum.
That was given in order to form a skin and harden the sore and
raw place in the bowel after the bird had passed the core. The
turkey hen did not fully recover for three or four days.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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