Just a few days ago, I noticed some of my geese were acting sluggish and that they all suddenly had gotten eye infections. I separated them to a pen of their own and treated their eyes and dosed vitamins. I began having a few ducks and chickens die off, then all of my chickens dying off. I will spare you the details, but my geese went downhill and had neurological symptoms, and died quickly, but suffered. It was terrible to watch. This included my most favorite bird and important breeder male, a 6yr old gander named Fern. Geese take 3 years to reach sexual maturity, so losing my only breeder like that is gut-wrenching. I was devastated by my birds passing away and especially at the loss of such an important bird for me and one I was so attached to. To watch time, money, and emotional attachment you had to something just fade away like that in a snap of your fingers, it was heartbreaking. Not to mention I was planning on bringing them to a show at the end of the month and to sell my excess babies. During this time that my birds were dying I sent a couple of birds to my local lab who test poultry and other animals. I got my results back that they tested positive for Avian Influenza and have been in contact with USDA.
I still have 3 geese left, my gander Fern's mate, and their male and female offspring. I was given the option to quarantine my animals for 120 days or euthanize them with reimbursement for the birds, but even then, their market value is NOT enough to cover the real losses of losing them. I have decided to quarentine my birds and will be sterilizing my farm. I have 3 pens of birds that are not free range and so far remain unaffected of the influenza, and I hope it stays that way. My birds who were exposed to the influenza and recovered from it will develop immunities to it, so at the very least that seems like an upside that I am less likely to have another mass die off like this again. I am heartbroken at the loss of my birds and speechless to how quickly all of it happened. I live under a migratory bird fly-way and next to several commercial farms, so definitely not an ideal location for avoiding the influenza. I have also just finished up my waterfowl aviary I have waited so long for and planted it all, just to be hit with this, and unable to stock it for months.
Keep your flocks safe, don't leave excess food out for wild birds, and take free-range birds under cover
I still have 3 geese left, my gander Fern's mate, and their male and female offspring. I was given the option to quarantine my animals for 120 days or euthanize them with reimbursement for the birds, but even then, their market value is NOT enough to cover the real losses of losing them. I have decided to quarentine my birds and will be sterilizing my farm. I have 3 pens of birds that are not free range and so far remain unaffected of the influenza, and I hope it stays that way. My birds who were exposed to the influenza and recovered from it will develop immunities to it, so at the very least that seems like an upside that I am less likely to have another mass die off like this again. I am heartbroken at the loss of my birds and speechless to how quickly all of it happened. I live under a migratory bird fly-way and next to several commercial farms, so definitely not an ideal location for avoiding the influenza. I have also just finished up my waterfowl aviary I have waited so long for and planted it all, just to be hit with this, and unable to stock it for months.
Keep your flocks safe, don't leave excess food out for wild birds, and take free-range birds under cover
Where are you in California? We are in Sonoma County and have poultry farm after poultry farm culling all their birds right now for Avian Influenza. I think I read 1.5 million chickens so far. We are far feom poultry farms, but it’s scary. We’re on a creek wildlife corridor, luckily not many waterfowl coming through.
