Anyone who vaccinates their day-olds...?

[greyfields]

Not all vaccines need to be refrigerated.

When you look at the $$'s being thrown around here, it's always going to be far cheaper to have the hatchery vaccinate for you. Of course, if you're hatching yourself, then you have to take the responsibility.

A Marek's vaccine is simply cheap insurance. The coccidiossis one, though, is not 100% effective. So, I only think it's worth it if you are an organic operation, which can vaccinate but not medicate.

 

[horsejody]

Quote:
I don't raise commercial, and I have had birds get Marek's. Now I vaccinate. The disease is everywhere. The vaccine is so cheap, it is an easy precaution to take. The disease has a high mortality rate, and it is a pain in the butt.

 

[Wynette]

Hatching myself.

I also saw a vaccintion for Newcastle/bronchitis, and am considering this one as well. What are your thoughts on that, greyfields? As far as...can you do 2 vaccinations on a day-old chick? The reason I'm considering it is that I had some sort of respiratory issue go through my flock this summer; I lost several birds, took 2 to the vet and they were diagnosed and given meds, but they didn't make it. So, I never really knew for sure what they had. I've since quarantined all my flocks separately and sprayed down their runs with Oxine solution, and left them out of their respective runs for 3 weeks. But...I'm still a little worried, and I'm about to hatch some expensive chickies.

 

[Momo]

I got my first chicks this spring and ended up losing almost all of my birds to Marek's so believe me it can devastate a small backyard flock (I have no idea how they were exposed). I now have some month-old chicks and some newly hatched ones and I vaccinated 'em all. It was something like $10 for the vaccine and on the advice of my vet I just used normal saline as a diluent. It was easy and cheap. You will need a 1cc syringe with a small needle. You can split the vaccine wafer into four quarters and dilute one quarter at a time, then keep the rest in the refrigerator until you need it again.

 

[jaybme]

Momo, I have heard about the wafer to split, but did not find it- where did you?

My Marek's vaccine was ordered through my local feed store, as the company that gets it in the area only sells to licensed vets or stores.
The feed store was happy to order it, and it cost about $13.

BUT- I had to throw away a ton of it, as the bottle vaccinates 100 birds. I treated it to time and oxine before I threw it away, but still, a waste.

 

[Wynette]

Yes, Momo - please do share your source for the vaccine wafer! Sounds like that is MUCH more economical! Thanks!

 

[Wynette]

Okay, I just found this:

http://www.jefferslivestock.com/ssc...1J9GWUDTKKS2DRCUJ5AN83&pf_id=16782&cmkw=marek

I think the wafer spoken of is a small tablet sort of thing that's in the bottle. I quickly did some research online, and found a few poultry clubs with forums where a few folks indicated it's not worth trying to save the $ by splitting the wafer, because it does not easily split equally. This is the cheapest place I've found the vaccine, though!

 

[Momo]

Yes, the wafer is like a crumbly tablet in the bottom of the little bottle. I got mine from a poultry veterinarian in Abbotsford, BC. And yes it's difficult to cut that thing into equal quarters. I ended up with three half-decent quarters and a pile of rubble. But heck, even if you only get to use the vaccine once instead of 3-4 times, having watched my young chickens get sick and paralyzed one at a time, and trying unsuccessfully to save several of them, trust me, it is cheap at the price!

 

[Eggzactly]

I will be vaccinating my first hatch tommorrow.It's too bad i have to throw the rest of the vaccine away

 

[Laskaland]

Quote:
Jody, how many vaccines did that cover?
ty