St. John's Wort

[tridentk9]

Depending on the hen's level of antibodies transfered through the egg, maternal antibodies can interfere with vax on day old chicks. Oh so much can go wrong. http://www.canadianpoultrymagazine.com/maternal_antibodies.htm

-Kathy when you have time, could you find that article? Thanks

 

[casportpony]

Depending on the hen's level of antibodies transfered through the egg, maternal antibodies can interfere with vax on day old chicks. Oh so much can go wrong. http://www.canadianpoultrymagazine.com/maternal_antibodies.htm

-Kathy when you have time, could you find that article? Thanks

I tried looking for it and could kick myself for not bookmarking it. It was about the vaccine they do in the egg and I think it was done by a vaccine company.

-Kathy

 

[BantamLover21]

Actually, I vaccinated her and many of the other birds in my flock as 1-2 day old chicks. They are quality exhibition birds that didn't come from a hatchery. It is certainly possible that my vaccinations weren't all correct, since it sure is hard to put a needle into a squirmy little chick. But I thought it was better than nothing.

In answer to chooks4life's comment, I do realize that vaccinating may interfere with breeding for resistance, since it hides the disease. I do want to eliminate the weak from my flock, but I also want to give the others a fighting chance through vaccination. All of the birds I've lost from Marek's, except two, were not vaccinated. I feel like if I stopped vaccinating, there would be no "resistant" non-vaccinated birds to survive and breed. Unfortunately, Dutch bantams are not known for being very resistant to the Marek's virus, and their rarity in the United States means that every purebred flock is important.

So for now, I'm going to keep vaccinating, but I will cull any vaccinated birds that show symptoms--if they're too weak to survive even being vaccinated, I don't want them in my flock.

 

[tridentk9]

I tried looking for it and could kick myself for not bookmarking it. It was about the vaccine they do in the egg and I think it was done by a vaccine company.

-Kathy

Thanks for the effort. Everytime I switch computers I have to rebuild my bookmarks. Argh, pita.

 

[chooks4life]

In answer to chooks4life's comment, I do realize that vaccinating may interfere with breeding for resistance, since it hides the disease. I do want to eliminate the weak from my flock, but I also want to give the others a fighting chance through vaccination. All of the birds I've lost from Marek's, except two, were not vaccinated. I feel like if I stopped vaccinating, there would be no "resistant" non-vaccinated birds to survive and breed. Unfortunately, Dutch bantams are not known for being very resistant to the Marek's virus, and their rarity in the United States means that every purebred flock is important.

So for now, I'm going to keep vaccinating, but I will cull any vaccinated birds that show symptoms--if they're too weak to survive even being vaccinated, I don't want them in my flock.

My experience with Mareks' has been that unvacc'd stock are more likely to survive it, it's not hard to breed resistance but that said I do know that some strains of some breeds, and some breeds in general including Dutch bantams are known for being very susceptible, and for sure you've got an issue there with your rare breed chooks that I don't have in mongrels.

The issue with the vaccines is that you don't know if you have resistant birds or not due to the vaccine so you won't know if you're breeding on very susceptible birds or not, but breeding for resistance isn't right for everyone's situation and in a situation like yours it'd be a bit of a complex and long term task. Vaccing is probably the best bet for you. I hope someone, somewhere, is working on MDV resistant Dutch bantams etc though because it clearly needs doing.

Best wishes with your battle there.

 

[chooks4life]

Thanks for the effort. Everytime I switch computers I have to rebuild my bookmarks. Argh, pita.

You don't put them on a flash drive and just import them? I back mine up regularly, got a heap it'd really suck to lose.

Best wishes.

 

[tridentk9]

You don't put them on a flash drive and just import them? I back mine up regularly, got a heap it'd really suck to lose.

Best wishes.

Sigh, i break electronic equipment just by touching it. Not even that sometime, just entering my name sent the computer systems in a major hospital down. Not once but TWICE!!

 

[chooks4life]

Ah lol well some major hospitals have been found to have some outdated and severely buggy gear, might not be your fault there...

 

[Organic-Wine-Os]

How do you give it to the bird? Through an eye dropper or just wait for her to drink the water herself?

 

[cjpines]

How do you give it to the bird? Through an eye dropper or just wait for her to drink the water herself?

My bird wouldn't take the eye dropper, so I put the St. John's Wart tablet in a teaspoon of water, mashed it up and gave it to her from a tiny bowl that she would drink from. I made sure she drank all of it at one time.