Advice on culling to creating good, strong breeding stock. Am I a monster?

[SpicyDisaster]

Not being negative, but why did you bring a sick rooster into your flock? The old saying "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." certainly applies here. Hopefully, you'll learn from this experience.

OP stated they were unaware and are newbies at this. We all make better decisions with experience in any subject.

Echoing what's been said above, check into necropsy before culling to know what you are dealing with and if it's something the rest of your flock will be carriers of for life.

 

[Hannahnic14]

I wasn't aware he was sick.......as stated in one of my previous replies, I am a new chicken owner and didn't know what to look for. All he had was a hoarse crow when I got him. Trust me, I've learned not to reach out to the general chicken community as they aren't exactly encouraging. What's done is done, I just need help on how to fix it/how to carry on with a healthy flock, which I have found elsewhere.

Pardon me if I am rude, your comment is very hurtful and brought me to tears as you don't know my circumstances and I am trying my best to do this right.

Not being negative, but why did you bring a sick rooster into your flock? The old saying "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." certainly applies here. Hopefully, you'll learn from this experience.

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

In no way are you a "monster" for wanting to keep a healthy flock. I think the worst thing about being new at keeping chickens and purchasing sick chickens, is learning that many chicken diseases can sometimes be treated but never cured. The chickens remain carriers for life and can infect other chickens.

I agree with @MysteryChicken, that based on their symptoms you report, the roosters probably have MG. (Mycoplasma gallisepticum) I also agree with others that it is good to cull the sick roosters and send one to your state lab for necropsy. The main reason to do so is the roosters may be silent carriers of other infectious diseases too.

MG is treatable with tiamulin (Denagard), but not curable. If you want to only keep symptom-free birds, then cull any birds that become sick and breed only the symptom-free birds. (Keeping in mind that all your birds both present and future are likely silent carriers if your current chickens have been exposed to your sick roosters.) If you desire a completely disease-free flock, your best approach would be to start completely over and purchase day-old chicks from a reputable hatchery. I am an animal lover too and chose to treat my first flock that carried MG, but you are not a "monster" if you choose a different path.

Im sorry you have experienced this. It happened to me when I first got chickens too. It's no fun at all dealing with diseases that can't be cured.

 

[Hannahnic14]

In no way are you a "monster" for wanting to keep a healthy flock. I think the worst thing about being new at keeping chickens and purchasing sick chickens, is learning that many chicken diseases can sometimes be treated but never cured. The chickens remain carriers for life and can infect other chickens.

I agree with @MysteryChicken, that based on their symptoms you report, the roosters probably have MG. (Mycoplasma gallisepticum) I also agree with others that it is good to cull the sick roosters and send one to your state lab for necropsy. The main reason to do so is the roosters may be silent carriers of other infectious diseases too.

MG is treatable with tiamulin (Denagard), but not curable. If you want to only keep symptom-free birds, then cull any birds that become sick and breed only the symptom-free birds. (Keeping in mind that all your birds both present and future are likely silent carriers if your current chickens have been exposed to your sick roosters.) If you desire a completely disease-free flock, your best approach would be to start completely over and purchase day-old chicks from a reputable hatchery. I am an animal lover too and chose to treat my first flock that carried MG, but you are not a "monster" if you choose a different path.

Im sorry you have experienced this. It happened to me when I first got chickens too. It's no fun at all dealing with diseases that can't be cured.

Thank you so so much for your kind words. My plan at the moment is to cull the sick birds, I'll try to send one to my state lab but I'm finding that they required a vet reference, (I'll research that more), breed the strongest birds for immunity, if worst comes to worst I'll just start fresh. But that will be a last resort.

 

[ShrekDawg]

I wasn't aware he was sick.......as stated in one of my previous replies, I am a new chicken owner and didn't know what to look for. All he had was a hoarse crow when I got him. Trust me, I've learned not to reach out to the general chicken community as they aren't exactly encouraging. What's done is done, I just need help on how to fix it/how to carry on with a healthy flock, which I have found elsewhere.

Pardon me if I am rude, your comment is very hurtful and brought me to tears as you don't know my circumstances and I am trying my best to do this right.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

Thank you so so much for your kind words. My plan at the moment is to cull the sick birds, I'll try to send one to my state lab but I'm finding that they required a vet reference, (I'll research that more), breed the strongest birds for immunity, if worst comes to worst I'll just start fresh. But that will be a last resort.

I applaud you for wanting to address the situation. Best case scenario is as others have said, if you cull get the body tested.

I just wanted to share my own experience: I've had chickens for 3.5 years. I've had respiratory outbreaks occur on three different occasions and they all resolved well with antibiotic treatments. The respiratory outbreak symptoms included swollen eyes, some eye drainage or leakage from the nares, and a few birds were lethargic. I had no deaths. I did not know until last year that there was a risk that the virus could be something more serious like MG. Not all respiratory problems are MG or coryza. Also the stress of moving a flock can sometimes trigger suppressed viruses to resurface for a time. Personally, I decided to keep my flock as is. Given that I've had no deaths, I have not sent anything in for testing. In fact, the only death I've ever had was a young pullet at point of lay that passed, and a hen who had a mite overload that I didn't understand at the time. Currently my flock is happy and healthy, so there's always that chance for full recovery, but viruses do stay in their system forever. So any new birds could briefly get sick as well. Most of the time it's not too different than me or you getting a cold!

I've battled with myself over the "right" thing to do, and for me, it was to keep things as they are. There's no right or wrong choice in this situation, just as long as you are comfortable with the choice you made that's what's important. You didn't do anything wrong, and you'll be faced with new challenges all the time with chickens. You can't expect to learn everything all at once!! I wish you the best of luck!

 

[Hannahnic14]

I applaud you for wanting to address the situation. Best case scenario is as others have said, if you cull get the body tested.

I just wanted to share my own experience: I've had chickens for 3.5 years. I've had respiratory outbreaks occur on three different occasions and they all resolved well with antibiotic treatments. The respiratory outbreak symptoms included swollen eyes, some eye drainage or leakage from the nares, and a few birds were lethargic. I had no deaths. I did not know until last year that there was a risk that the virus could be something more serious like MG. Not all respiratory problems are MG or coryza. Also the stress of moving a flock can sometimes trigger suppressed viruses to resurface for a time. Personally, I decided to keep my flock as is. Given that I've had no deaths, I have not sent anything in for testing. In fact, the only death I've ever had was a young pullet at point of lay that passed, and a hen who had a mite overload that I didn't understand at the time. Currently my flock is happy and healthy, so there's always that chance for full recovery, but viruses do stay in their system forever. So any new birds could briefly get sick as well. Most of the time it's not too different than me or you getting a cold!

I've battled with myself over the "right" thing to do, and for me, it was to keep things as they are. There's no right or wrong choice in this situation, just as long as you are comfortable with the choice you made that's what's important. You didn't do anything wrong, and you'll be faced with new challenges all the time with chickens. You can't expect to learn everything all at once!! I wish you the best of luck!

Thank you for sharing your experience! I haven't had any deaths related to this illness either. I had a crossbeak that passed away recently but she had lived a long life and had other issues I wasn't aware of. I appreciate you sending some light and hope on my situation.

I will continue to assess the 2 that are still sick, they are isolated. If I feel they are suffering or just aren't getting better I will make a decision then. For now everyone else is happy healthy and laying double yolk eggs

 

[JacinLarkwell]

No, you are not a monster. I recently had to consider a similar situation with one of my boys who had severe frostbite, as did his father. I'm thinking that it's partially genetic as there should have been no way for this particular bird to get frostbite, especially as bad as he did. Yes, my other birds get frostbite, but this bird was kept under a heat lamp and still got it. He ended up passing in a surprise snow storm, but I had to consider whether or not it was worth keeping this lovebug with those issues if he might pass them to his children.

I agree if you can, send the culled males in. If you can't, at least look at them yourself. You might not see anything, but odds are something will look.... off in the least if it's something bad

 

[Hannahnic14]

No, you are not a monster. I recently had to consider a similar situation with one of my boys who had severe frostbite, as did his father. I'm thinking that it's partially genetic as there should have been no way for this particular bird to get frostbite, especially as bad as he did. Yes, my other birds get frostbite, but this bird was kept under a heat lamp and still got it. He ended up passing in a surprise snow storm, but I had to consider whether or not it was worth keeping this lovebug with those issues if he might pass them to his children.

I agree if you can, send the culled males in. If you can't, at least look at them yourself. You might not see anything, but odds are something will look.... off in the least if it's something bad

I guess the bottom line is to do what is best for the birds in the long run. If I can't send them in we will definitely open them up and see if we can see anything amiss.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I guess the bottom line is to do what is best for the birds in the long run. If I can't send them in we will definitely open them up and see if we can see anything amiss.

I am one of the people (made my ethics class far harder than it should have been) that almost always weighs the one against the many. What is best for survival of the group as a whole? While most chickens here don't have to worry about growing too old to find enough feed or being too (something) to do (something else), illness unfortunately isn't quite as simple. Especially if it's something that can be passed down. It might just be something like weaker lungs or small nostrils (I had a pullet we culled that ended up with having a heart that was super small for her size), but if it is something that can get passed down, you might deal with it more if you grow chicks from these males.