What I Learned From My Awful Experience with Avian Flu

[Acre4Me]

I’m sorry for your loss. It is hard when things happen so suddenly.

HPAI has been on the west coast for awhile. Typically the dept of Ag for your state would have had updates on this on the website, and HPAI has been covered on the news. Personally, I don’t watch much tv, so I would have missed the discussion on the news.

HPAI has been moving through due to migration of wild birds. Your birds happened to be exposed bc they free range. During times of HPAI, it is recommended to keep your flock under cover. The last time HPAI reared it’s ugly head in the US was in 2015, and huge numbers of birds were culled.

HPAI is very lethal to chickens. What is a low cost source of protein ? Yes, chicken meat and chicken eggs. What is used in the medical industry for many things? Yes, chicken eggs. So, if chickens get HPAI, they die with major impacts to many areas, including big increases in the cost of inexpensive, but highly nutritious human food.

While I cannot answer why you had the exact experience you did, there are non-emotional reasons why the flock was culled, I’ll guess due to becoming carriers - not sure.

HPAI (Highly Pathogenic AI) is the form they are concerned about. There is also LPAI (Low Pathogenic AI) that is around but does not cause concern or government involvement. HPAI is very lethal , etc (as mentioned earlier), but the other concern is human transmission. Humans HAVE come down with HPAI but usually only with high exposure with sick or dead birds. But, what if it then moved from human to human? Luckily, that has not happened with this year’s HPAI -the sick humans did not get another human sick. I once read (but did not verify) that the big flu pandemic of 1917, when huge numbers of humans died, originated as bird flu. But, as mentioned, I have not followed up with other sources to verify. So, there are potentially large ramifications with HPAI.

If you want to follow what is occurring with HPAI, just search for USDA-APHIS HPAI occurrences. You will get to a webpage with more detailed info.

Irregardless of any of this information, losing your flock and your loved birds is quite a blow and I’m sorry you have had that experience.

 

[AmeraucanaHank]

I wanted to share...

It's an awful, terrible, painful day. One I don't wish on any of you. The state just killed all my babies. Even the brand new magpie ducks that just arrived in the mail yesterday and have never even set a webbed footie on the tainted ground that is now my 10-acre quarantined piece of property.

I loved every single one of my babies. I'm a good momma. I spoil them. I know each of them. I can tell you which one liked strawberry smoothies, or which one hated kale, and how their little white ducky bibs get stained pink with watermelon every morning.

My beautiful geese were hand trained to sit on my lap. They followed me from task to task, watching me in my windows as I vacuum or cook, and even climbed up on the deck and tapped on the slider when they wanted more lettuce or wanted to be held.

The first thing that happened is that one of my ducks had a runny eye. We dosed it with eyedrops and assumed it had run into something or had duckie pink eye. It cleared in two days so we didn't think any more of it.

Then one of my young geese became sick.

It looked like neurological problems and lethargy. His head shook like he was seizing. He died in one hour. I asked some other goose moms what it could be. Everyone else in the young gosling flock was fine. We all agreed he must have eaten something toxic like a nut or a penny.

A few days passed and another goose started looking ill. I made an appointment with the vet and researched. None of the books mentioned Avian Flu and I hadn't heard anything about it on the news. My ducks and geese free range around my home. We have a year-round creek and a seasonal pond frequented by waterfowl. Even the vet didn't suspect it. We were thinking Fowl Cholera.

He prescribed antibiotics which we began dosing the sick goose with and putting into the water for everyone else just in case.

The next day, several more geese became ill and the one I'd taken to the vet died.

I called the vet who said to bring in the baby for testing and we'd for sure figure out what was happening, meanwhile to keep up the treatment. Some of my geese appeared to be getting better with our watermelon, antibiotics, and syringe water feedings.

I went to a hair appointment and was talking about my poor flock when my hair stylist mentioned the bird flu epidemic. I googled it and she sent me an article with a phone number. While I had foils in my hair, I called for information.

Here's where everything goes from bad to worse.

Immediately, instead of information, I get interrogated as if I'm a criminal. When I explained what happened, they wanted to know my email, address, phone number, and my vet's information.

I gave it to them and hung up, thinking my vet would handle the rest.

Ten minutes later they called me back and acted even more aggressively. They said they couldn't contact my vet but they are taking over the "investigation" and appropriating the "sample" sent to OHSU and that they'd send it to Iowa and have results back by 5 PM and would be in touch.

I didn't know what to say to that. I never gave permission for the government to appropriate my goose. I was only calling for information.

By the time I got home, there was a message on my phone that the sample sent to Iowa had come back positive for HPAI-High Path Avian Influenza, and was Thursday a good day to cull my flock?

"Umm, wait a minute. Hold on," I said. "I'd like to investigate my options first. You know, talk to my vet. Do some research."

"What do you mean? If you're talking about hiding your animals. You can't do that. Some people try, but we will stop you."

Holy Crap.

Now I'm not a rebellious type. I drive the speed limit. I obey the law. But I also love my animals. I didn't know who this was. Something felt off. It was moving way too fast. I don't just hand over my baby because a stranger told me to. Would any mother? If an animal is sick, I put it down. But all life is precious. I want to think about it for a minute. For heaven's sake, let me breathe and at least try to understand the need to lose nearly one hundred animals. It's a lot to ask someone.

I told them my intention was not to hide my animals and I reassured them that they were all contained in our barn in separate pens (we'd confined our sick geese and separated the sick from the healthy already). I said I wanted to wait until I received confirmation from my own vet and consult with him before making any decisions.

They said there was no decision to make but that they would let me talk with him and that it was the only humane thing to do as all my birds would die terrible agonizing deaths and I wouldn't want that, would I?

Now that kind of talk is irresponsible. It's assuming and threatening. They don't know anything about me or how I take care of my animals. I'm an extremely careful, very loving animal owner.

I called my vet the next morning. He confirmed the diagnosis and said they had the legal right to put down the entire flock.

I asked him why they wouldn't test individual birds to see if they had it. If it was a matter of money, we would pay. He said it was policy. They just wouldn't.

Then I said, "According to what I've read, ducks and geese seem to survive this virus but become carriers."

He said that was correct.

My vet was kind and expressed empathy and agreed that putting down domestic animals in no way will stop this virus. If I hadn't reported it, they simply wouldn't have come out.

I said, "Isn't it possible that all the ducks and geese in the area have already been exposed and recovered from it?"

"Yes."

"Then we're putting down my babies for nothing."

"That's essentially correct. It's putting out fires where they can be controlled. To actually eradicate this virus we'd have to destroy every waterbird on the planet and that's just not possible."

"So because they can catch mine and test them, they die."

"Yes."

After that phone call, I found an email from the state putting my property under Quarantine for six months. And there was a phone call saying they'd get a court order if they didn't hear from me by noon on Wednesday. That was less than 24 hours after my first call. I don't know about you, but I don't typically pick up calls with numbers I don't recognize.

So I prepared myself for today and said my tearful goodbyes to my babies knowing I had no other choice.

Everyone got a huge dinner of roasted zucchini, corn, watermelon, lettuce, and peas and a soft, fluffy nest of an entire bale of straw. We hugged each bird and told them we loved them and they were special and wonderful and thanked them for sharing their lives with us. That they were beautiful and gave us so much joy. We told them they can swim in God's pond. That His pond is so pretty. It's full of delicious things they can dive for and sunny warm rocks to take naps on, and every morning is wormy morning, and the grass is delicious and thick and sweet and He puts out lots of fun things for geese to tear up and destroy. He even sometimes leaves His mud shoes outside for geese to move around and hide.

We took some photos and cried and cried. Our gander, our most special boy, snuggled his long neck into the crook of our arm and sighed. He gave us two of his feathers as if he knew he was leaving and wanted us to remember him.

I'd been planning to tell the state vets the story of each duck and goose as they killed them but I could tell they didn't care.

These aren't real vets like Dr. Pol. They're bureaucrats. Politicians with a license to kill animals. They smiled pretty while they were at my home.

But when we asked questions, there were several things that didn't add up.

1) He freely admitted that geese were getting sick from the virus but ducks heal. If we wanted birds again in the future, get ducks. You wouldn't even know they were sick.

What? Is the problem that they are sick or that we know they are sick?

2) When I asked if we needed to watch out for dead wild birds, the answer was no. They survive and stop carrying the virus after six months.

I followed up with "Then can't I simply quarantine my animals for six months until they stop shedding the virus?"

The answer was, "No. We can't risk that. You might contaminate the grocery store, for example, and other people might spread it to their flocks."

Personally, I disagree. I know how to quarantine. I know how to use Instacart. I work from home. That would be a small price to pay to keep my animals. That should be my decision. Give me a list of protocols and let me decide if I'm willing to follow your parameters.

3) My birds free roamed the property. We have lots of walking paths and fairy gardens. I asked if that meant we couldn't garden or walk the paths.

His answer was no. There are no restrictions.

That doesn't make sense. There are still wild birds on the property including waterfowl. Why is it perfectly fine for me to go to the grocery store wearing whatever shoes I want knowing my poor birds picked up the virus here from wild birds that are still floating on our pond but they have to be killed?

I'm not a conspiracist or anything. But I don't feel like we were treated well or with kindness or empathy. My nesting goose and gander kicked and screamed in the garbage can as they gassed them and their eggs in and I nearly collapsed when they then dragged out my poor hen's body and threw it in another can.

It was so awful!

Something feels very wrong about all this. It feels political to me and I hate politics. I don't know if I have the heart to ever have babies again. I don't think I can go through it again. I feel broken. Putting every single one of my birds in a garbage can almost did me in. But a mom doesn't abandon her young.

This might be my last post.

I hope it helps some of you.

Symptoms of Avian Flu to look for in your ducks and geese:

Weepy eyes
Enlarged black eyes
Glossy eyes (blind eye or cataract)
Lethargy
Loss of Appetite
Crooked Neck
Crying
Confusion/Disorientation
Spinning in Circles
Getting Lost
In Goose Yellow Rim around Eye turns Red
Exhaustion

If you have a large enough property, I'd suggest separately housing your different birds in groups. That might convince the state they don't all need to be killed. But when I told them about the new babies who'd just arrived in the mail, they said I take care of birds, I opened the box, so they all needed to be put down. Period.

Prepare yourselves for that.

They will also be testing flocks in a large radius around my home.

Good luck everyone.

May God protect and watch over your flocks.

I'm sooo sorry!!! But, I don't think you should ever give up! What the government did to you was awful but, if I were you I would buy a boat load of new babies right after those 6 months!

 

[raingarden]

This is a heart-breaking story. I'm so sorry. But, you did the right thing and the agencies did the right thing to help minimize the spread and spare other bird-keepers from the same fate. That is not to mention reducing the chance of bird flu becoming the next human pandemic. A single mutation with the right characteristics could cause millions of human deaths.

 

[Brooks_]

We do not currently have chickens. We are the parents of two geese and eight ducks.

The loss of nearly one hundred birds,

That's a big change in six months.

 

[Cluckingtime]

I am so sorry this is about the saddest story I have ever read.. animals aren't just food but pets and companions as well. To be so heartless and careless of how you were feeling and what effect that would have on you and your loved ones and business just proves to me that our government cares nothing for Americans.. so sorry for your loss. Such tragedy my thoughts and tears are with you

 

[ChickNanny13]

Sorry to hear & know what you had to go through

 

[cluckmecoop7]

The government is absolutely disgusting in every way. I almost cried reading your story.

 

[mccmeadows]

That's a big change in six months.

I don’t think the amount of birds or how long she has had them for makes any difference in this very sad experience.

 

[Brooks_]

I don’t think the amount of birds or how long she has had them for makes any difference in this very sad experience.

Not on APHIS, as of yet.

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

@Colleen Ray , the emotional pain and loss you expressed in your first post was so palpable and raw I couldn't read it straight through without having to stop several times and compose myself. There are no comforting words I (or anyone else) can say that will ease your pain. But still, I am so very very sorry, and I thank you for sharing your story. Your ducks and geese knew you loved them, and I hope you can find Peace and Comfort in knowing that when Your time on earth is completed, you will see them again.