culling

[riyadh123]

i dont unsterstand the fact. why is it that people kill their ill chick/en when theyre ill?

 

[ten chicks]

i dont unsterstand the fact. why is it that people kill their ill chick/en when theyre ill?

The reason is either the animal is in severe pain,carrying a contagious disease or they do not know how to treat.

 

[riyadh123]

oh

 

[riyadh123]

thnx, i was jus wondering

 

[Wyandottes7]

Some reasons include that the chicken has a serious disease that could infect the entire flock, it is in pain/isn't getting better, there is no known treatment, or the disease can spread easily to other flocks (therefore infecting them, too). All of these can be reasons for culling a sick chicken.

 

[Noobchick]

It's hard on the humans doing the culling, but most of the time, it's better for the bird. I had a hen get flystrike a couple months ago when the flies were bad. Overnight, maggots had hatched and eaten into her abdomen, and her butt. She was in pain. There was no treating her. I culled her and put her out of her misery. Yes it was hard for me but it was the responsible thing to do. To let her live in that kind of pain would have been cruel.

 

[dawg53]

Respiratory diseases are contageous to other birds in a flock. Treating them with antibiotics only treats symptoms but never cures birds from the disease. Birds that survive these diseases are carriers for life and will spread the disease to newly introduced birds to an existing flock. Additionally, some diseases are passed through hatching eggs. Also if the the disease is a virus, antibiotics are useless. It's best to cull sick birds to protect the rest of the flock if caught in time. Biosecurity is important when owning birds. Most people want to treat sick birds. I usually recommend treatments because that's what they want...but I always mention that the other option is to cull the sick birds or they'll be playing nursemaid to a bunch of sick birds which costs money and is time consuming.
There are other problems that dont require culling a bird such as certain injuries, bumblefoot, parasites etc...it really just depends what you're dealing with.

 

[riyadh123]

can cocci be removed from bird completely?

 

[dawg53]

No. All birds have cocci. It's when it gets out of control in their system is when there's a problem and requires treatment. Same with ecoli bacteria.