gr00h
In the Brooder
I'm typing this as a story of desperation, sadness, and in a way submission and defeat. I was raised on a farm but am new to large flock raising and certain procedures that ensure flock safety. I have read online that if I kept the water clean, their housing clean, food clean, nutritious foods, lots of space, clean fresh water, quarantines for new birds for a MINIMUM of a week, etc., my birds should be healthy. I had no idea of how common certain very crappy diseases are, and I sort of brushed off the possibility because I was doing lots of things to try to keep my birds healthy and spending a load of time, care and love into them.
I've been combing the internet this week for possibilities of how and why they're having respiratory issues and I feel like I am facing a goliath challenge or defeat. There are SO many ways they could have gotten what they did. I have been in and out of feed stores without changing and then going to my flock, there are wild birds that often hang around our house and in the coop, I have been to another bird owners property, I have added birds to the flock a few times (waited two weeks, not long enough I think now), ordered hatching eggs online ( I had NO idea that these kinds of things could pass to eggs, ***). etc. Looking at all of the possibilities makes me feel better and worse at the same time. It makes me feel stupid, like there are a million things I should have been way more careful with and didn't even realize. And then better because there are so many things that can go wrong, how can you do things right 100% of the time? My highest suspect of disease was from adding birds from one particular owner from craigslist, because, the birds were very slender, pale, underweight, had low energy, and one rooster had leg problems. I absolutely agree with what you're probably thinking. I shouldn't have been so naive and been very aggressive and investigatory, but long story short, idiot me didn't realize they were that way until they were walking on my property. They exhibited no breathing and respiratory problems then or now. Unfortunately, I give people the benefit of the doubt until I am certain they are terrible, and I am now certain that this person was terrible. I got into a huge (text) argument with them. I became under the impression that they were very neglected and possibly needed worming so I wormed the whole flock. I kept them separate *but in a near pasture* to my birds for about two weeks. My original flock's symptoms are now: sneezing, gurgles in chest sometimes while breathing, weird noises, one/ two have puffy eye, one of those had bubbles in the eyes. The newbies (young craigslist adults) did not and do not have any of these symptoms. To make matters worse, I have compounded the problem by having recent hatches of baby turkeys and more baby Delawares. A few of the baby turkeys are showing respiratory problems, one late hatcher who had a leg problem died (lil Jeb ;'( ), and now another today is having trouble staying on his feet. I feel like I'm a terrible owner for not keeping them safe, I spent hours a week just being with my girls, roos and baby turkeys, 5 hours a week cleaning their water, feeds, and coops, and lots of reading reading reading. I've invested in dewormer, DE, and even buy them fresh produce sometimes. I have invested so so so much time, money and energy. I LOVE them. I'm an animal person, and I fell in love with my birds
. We were planning to do some breeding every year, some selling, light butchering, and having lots o' eggs.
The two breeds I chose were Delaware Chickens and Bourbon Red Turkeys, and I believe that they either have MG or Coryza (my guesses from the internet). It is possible that they've all had it for a while, or it's brand new as I've read healthy birds can have it and carry it for a while before having symptoms, and my original adult birds are robust, happy, and healthy (until seemingly now). Last week I wormed with wazine (pig swig), and this week/last week we are having a heat wave. All have access to shade and water but it's still hot. I hear that heat/temperature stress can make diseases that chickens can carry flare up. I noticed the symptoms come on quickly and generalized to multiple birds (about 6 + the baby chicks that are inside our home) within 2 days time (this started 3 days ago). I have talked to some experienced flock owners at my fav feed store and they've directed me toward a general antibiotic and another medicine ( I don't remember the names off the top of my head but one was to take care of MG symptoms, the other Coryza) . I started the general antibiotic yesterday, and will be giving the other medicine in about a week. I have also invested in and been administering probiotics for chicks and adults.
I currently 13 adults, 6 "teenagers", and 7 "tweens", and 14, 1 month old Delaware chickens. In addition, I have recently invested and hatched 11 baby turkeys (one dead, another may die today), they are with 8 healthy same age Delaware chicks (another one will most likely die, it's showing strong symptoms), and I have 10 eggs that will hatch tomorrow or the next day in the incubator. Both indoors and outdoors I have seen them exhibit symptoms so I am almost positive they all are carriers for whatever they have. I do not see a point in quarantining, nor do I have space/area set up for it.
Some would say I am overreacting, but I am guilt ridden. How could I allow this to happen to my babies? And not only that, a lot of time and energy spent down the drain for breeding purposes, and selling purposes ( purchasing birds from multiple genetic groups, incubator, different feed per age groups, hours and hours online). I have been depressed and kicking myself this week, almost cried at work a few times. I'm a softy and want to do well.
Any tips? Kind words? Hopefully nothing repetitive and obvious to me ( at least not anymore). But hey, I could probably use a good boot.
Sincerely,
Someone who is deep in the stages of self-deprecation.
I've been combing the internet this week for possibilities of how and why they're having respiratory issues and I feel like I am facing a goliath challenge or defeat. There are SO many ways they could have gotten what they did. I have been in and out of feed stores without changing and then going to my flock, there are wild birds that often hang around our house and in the coop, I have been to another bird owners property, I have added birds to the flock a few times (waited two weeks, not long enough I think now), ordered hatching eggs online ( I had NO idea that these kinds of things could pass to eggs, ***). etc. Looking at all of the possibilities makes me feel better and worse at the same time. It makes me feel stupid, like there are a million things I should have been way more careful with and didn't even realize. And then better because there are so many things that can go wrong, how can you do things right 100% of the time? My highest suspect of disease was from adding birds from one particular owner from craigslist, because, the birds were very slender, pale, underweight, had low energy, and one rooster had leg problems. I absolutely agree with what you're probably thinking. I shouldn't have been so naive and been very aggressive and investigatory, but long story short, idiot me didn't realize they were that way until they were walking on my property. They exhibited no breathing and respiratory problems then or now. Unfortunately, I give people the benefit of the doubt until I am certain they are terrible, and I am now certain that this person was terrible. I got into a huge (text) argument with them. I became under the impression that they were very neglected and possibly needed worming so I wormed the whole flock. I kept them separate *but in a near pasture* to my birds for about two weeks. My original flock's symptoms are now: sneezing, gurgles in chest sometimes while breathing, weird noises, one/ two have puffy eye, one of those had bubbles in the eyes. The newbies (young craigslist adults) did not and do not have any of these symptoms. To make matters worse, I have compounded the problem by having recent hatches of baby turkeys and more baby Delawares. A few of the baby turkeys are showing respiratory problems, one late hatcher who had a leg problem died (lil Jeb ;'( ), and now another today is having trouble staying on his feet. I feel like I'm a terrible owner for not keeping them safe, I spent hours a week just being with my girls, roos and baby turkeys, 5 hours a week cleaning their water, feeds, and coops, and lots of reading reading reading. I've invested in dewormer, DE, and even buy them fresh produce sometimes. I have invested so so so much time, money and energy. I LOVE them. I'm an animal person, and I fell in love with my birds
. We were planning to do some breeding every year, some selling, light butchering, and having lots o' eggs.The two breeds I chose were Delaware Chickens and Bourbon Red Turkeys, and I believe that they either have MG or Coryza (my guesses from the internet). It is possible that they've all had it for a while, or it's brand new as I've read healthy birds can have it and carry it for a while before having symptoms, and my original adult birds are robust, happy, and healthy (until seemingly now). Last week I wormed with wazine (pig swig), and this week/last week we are having a heat wave. All have access to shade and water but it's still hot. I hear that heat/temperature stress can make diseases that chickens can carry flare up. I noticed the symptoms come on quickly and generalized to multiple birds (about 6 + the baby chicks that are inside our home) within 2 days time (this started 3 days ago). I have talked to some experienced flock owners at my fav feed store and they've directed me toward a general antibiotic and another medicine ( I don't remember the names off the top of my head but one was to take care of MG symptoms, the other Coryza) . I started the general antibiotic yesterday, and will be giving the other medicine in about a week. I have also invested in and been administering probiotics for chicks and adults.
I currently 13 adults, 6 "teenagers", and 7 "tweens", and 14, 1 month old Delaware chickens. In addition, I have recently invested and hatched 11 baby turkeys (one dead, another may die today), they are with 8 healthy same age Delaware chicks (another one will most likely die, it's showing strong symptoms), and I have 10 eggs that will hatch tomorrow or the next day in the incubator. Both indoors and outdoors I have seen them exhibit symptoms so I am almost positive they all are carriers for whatever they have. I do not see a point in quarantining, nor do I have space/area set up for it.
Some would say I am overreacting, but I am guilt ridden. How could I allow this to happen to my babies? And not only that, a lot of time and energy spent down the drain for breeding purposes, and selling purposes ( purchasing birds from multiple genetic groups, incubator, different feed per age groups, hours and hours online). I have been depressed and kicking myself this week, almost cried at work a few times. I'm a softy and want to do well.
Any tips? Kind words? Hopefully nothing repetitive and obvious to me ( at least not anymore). But hey, I could probably use a good boot.
Sincerely,
Someone who is deep in the stages of self-deprecation.
