Avian Lymphoid Leukosis-Not good news!

[allen wranch]

If you can get your vet to just draw blood, you can send the sample yourself to a poultry lab for processing. If there is a vet school in your state, they will probably do it. Check around. The test uses Tissue, Blood EDTA (important for your vet to know.) I use a livestock vet and he charges me $6 to draw blood with no office charge.

Since I am in Texas, I have blood work done by the Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Lab. They will process blood from out of state. The Avian Leukosis blood test would be $20 for out of state.
http://tvmdl.tamu.edu/testinf.php?unit=1312

 

[EweSheep]

As for me, I had one Spitz tested positive for LLV, vet check, office call and visit, taking blood samples off to U of I, cost me $150 total. UGH! This bird was either the third or fourth generations from Carla's stock....so no blame placed on Carla for that! It just happens. None of my other birds are affected or have any symptoms of LLV in my other breeds.

I have an Ideal Hatchery Spitz that going on pretty good, lays well, at two years old and I would not mind getting her tested but this year's income tax will be spent on paying off bills and DD's private school tution. Maybe winning the lotto will get her tested.

Gabby, glad your LLV birds are going good, just hope they will continue to live a long healthy life. Carla, I hope your Spitz will live a long time too! It is so rare!

 

[star2525]

Urbanolive,

Getting into this thread late, as I also have a pair of Spitzhaubens and will test my young pair, I've only had them since May of this year.

There is another way of doing testing that won't cost as much, what I did was here in Ohio our 4H some are NPIP testers, so I located a 4H Advisor that was certified to do NPIP and asked her to help me with doing a blood draw, they get 2 dollars a bird here to do NPIP, so I paid her more than that for the help, I got the tubes from a Vet that was not coated inside or outside they cost about 75 cents to a dollar a piece, I got a fresh syringe and needle, the Vet at the Diagnostic Lab I contacted told me what size of needles and about the tubes, I had to locate the tubes, so if you can't find the tubes I can and would be willing to send you some, the Diagnostic Lab I use is in Wisconsin, I mail the samples thru FedEx, they are the only one that will ship blood, I took a small tampax box and tissue paper for packing and put the tubes in the box, then sealed that inside of a plastic zip lock baggy, then that in another zip lock baggy, so double sealed, then I put that in the envelop the FedEx people gave me and shipped overnight to the Lab, I paid more for the shipping as I wanted it to get to them the earliest it could the next day, that cost me about 30 if I remember right from the last time I sent blood to them. The Lab got the tubes and began testing immediately, usually you can find out the results from this lab in days, depending upon the test, and they will take the blood from you even if you are in another state and you can do the blood draw yourself, its a grandfather clause with them for doing this in Wisconsin, I can give you the information for who to contact and the phone number to check on the prices of the tests, I'll be testing my pair but not until they are a little older and I hope I don't have any problems with them. Mine aren't the Silvers, mine are the Golds, the hens came from the UK originally that she used for breeding with, she used a Silver Rooster from here to get the gold gene split to breed to get a Gold Rooster, so I'm hoping the different gene pool involved from the gold hens will help with this disease, but won't really know until I do the tests myself on the birds.

Victoria

 

[allen wranch]

Good suggestion, Victoria.

I hope your birds are OK.

I ordered some gold Spitz eggs a couple of years ago, but unfortunately, they did not hatch. Do you have any pictures of yours?

 

[EweSheep]

I would LOVE to see the outcome of this.....please do let us know! If we can get LLV negative, all for the better we can use on our Spitzhaubens. Or start all over. I wished for a miracle cure for them! Such a horrible fate for those who got the deadly gene.

 

[star2525]

Here's a picture of my Gold Spitzhauben cockrel taken in July, he was hatched the middle of May, he's got alot more Gold to him now, almost looks like a Leopard, I'll have to take a more recent picture of him and of the pullet.

Victoria

 

[star2525]

I managed to take another picture of the pair I have and have uploaded it, so I'll try and post the picture here

I love the feather color of these birds, there is an issue that I have found with them thru doing a bunch of searches on Spitzhaubens, and I am not for sure exactly what to do about it, their leg color is green and I managed to find someone else that also hatched chicks and theirs had green legs also, they don't have their birds anymore, so far I'm the only one with these birds and now I'm trying to figure out how they could have green legs and possibly yellow skin, from all of the information I know of about the birds they came from they are supposed to be pure, which also brings up another question in my mind, the original Hens came from the UK, and was crossed with Silver Spitzhaubens here, could the color have changed from that? Then the other question that comes to mind is that in the UK there was another breed that is now listed as extinct called the Yorkshire Hornets, I've found where it says they resembled the Gold Spitz and were almost identical, I am now on a search for pictures and information on the Yorkshire Hornets, and have yet to come up with pictures or leg color or skin color of those birds, I found where it said they was extinct around the 1970s, then I found another site that was around 2000 that said they was 30 in number in the UK, so now I'm wondering if the hens could have been a mix of the Gold Spitz and Yorkshire Hornets because of their declining numbers, I won't know anything more until I track down pictures and more information on the Yorkshire Hornets and I also emailed the UK site that listed photographs of them from around the 1930s to try and find out if I can get pictures, and there are a few books that I'll have to see if the Library can get for me to also investigate.

I managed to save to my Computer the picture of the birds from the Auction they came from and from the picture you can only see the one Hens legs, which looks to be blue from the picture, I'm going to breed them and try to hatch as many of their eggs as I possibly can and see what I get in their chicks, and I'm also going to test them for the Disease to see how they test for that. I think I'll hatch chicks from them first before stressing them out with testing as I only have the one pair to use. I am not sorry I got them even if they are not correct, I'll have to see if they throw correct offspring for Gold Spitzhaubens. I just got my first pullets eggs this week, so 2 eggs so far.

I know everyone says the Silver Spitzhaubens we have here came from the one Import, does anyone have information on that Import, like who imported them and what year it was? That information would also be helpful. I know the woman these came from and know they were imported as pure to her, I've known of the Gold Hens she got for several years, so I find no fault at all with the Breeder and her creation of a Gold line, and commend her for her breedings, they are absolutely strikingly beautiful birds and my picture of them doesn't show how beautiful they really are in person.

As I find out more information I'll post it here so that someone can hopefully help me on how to proceed with using them.

Victoria

 

[chickbird]

Quote:
i have vaccinated all my chickens for mareks....would be interested in what your vet has to say about this. thanks

 

[star2525]

Mareks and Avian Lymphoid Leukosis are not the same disease, so innaculating for Mareks isn't going to make a difference.

It is not a good idea to hatch any Spitzhauben eggs with other breed eggs or for that matter hatching different breed eggs together in the same Incubator, that is a big NO NO
It is best to know the Health History of the Flock the eggs came from and if the birds were tested for more than NPIP.
Also when you bring other birds into your flock it is a good idea to find out if they have been Innaculated for certain diseases, as they will shed cell from those Innaculations for a long time and then your birds that aren't innaculated will then have the disease the others was innaculated for, my Diagnostic Avian Vet told me that. I have Bantam Marans and was wanting to get some Large Fowl Marans to cross as a project for the egg color and feather color, I had a couple of people that was going to give me birds, the birds were innaculated for other diseases like ILT, and Infectious Bronchitis as well as Mycoplasma, and I called my Vet to ask about taking those birds and he told me no way, so it's real important to know how others have treated their flocks.

Keeping the birds on wire will also help with Coccidiosis, and burning their bedding will help to control the spread of it. Do not keep a Compost pile of birds bedding, free range birds will then be into the pile of compost, don't use straw for bedding, it is hollow and can harbor mites, mites will spread disease from one bird to another in addition to giving you a real issue to deal with to get rid of them, use hay for bedding and pine shavings.

Part of the problem with the Leukosis in the Spitzhaubens is because they are so closely related, there is not enough of a gene pool. Do not feed your Spitzhaubens Krill, it's an Anthropod and is linked to this disease.

Use Tek-Trol Aerosol Spray to help with dissinfecting for diseases when going from one group of birds to another group of birds.

I hope I am helping.

Victoria

 

[EweSheep]

Victoria, such interesting finds!!!!!!!!

I don't think my vet is going to agree with your vet so it is really up in the air about this disease. Yes we need better gene pools and not sure if the situation can help us with that.

As for the Golden Spitzhaubens, I do remember a gentleman who had been selling the eggs on Eggbid some time ago along with this wonderful lady. So its two Gold Spitzhauben breeders that I know of presently. However the gentleman uses both Gold and Silver for the mixed Spitzhaubens so you get something either or both colors in a batch of chicks. Or it could be of creme color.

I am impressed with your Golden Spitz and I hope one day I will get some too!