BYC Café

[N F C]

Hope you all have a great Saturday!

 

[scottcaddy]

View attachment 1126826

Hope you all have a great Saturday!

Thanks for the morning funny Debby!
That is me you know.
Scott

 

[WVduckchick]

Good morning Cafe. Coffee is fabulous today!

on the permethrin thing, i had one bird that got some mites. I sprayed her belly with the liquid! The Gordons liquid stuff. Cleaned out the coop, sprayed it down while they were free ranging. Kept the one hen separated for a few days, sprayed her 2-3 times i think. Haven't had any more issues. It was odd only one bird was affected.

 

[Bunnylady]

It was odd only one bird was affected.

I can't say for chickens, but I have heard that with horses and goats, if you do a fecal check on the animals in the herd before you treat for worms, you will find that most of the worms are in just a few animals. The numbers I have heard are that 80% of the worms will be in 20% of the animals, and another 20% will be nearly worm-free. If you repeat the test every time you worm, you'll find it's the same animals each time; some animals are just naturally parasite resistant. Some goat breeders have managed to have nearly parasite-free herds by selling off the wormy ones, and only keeping the parasite-resistant as breeding animals.

In horticulture, it is well known that plants that are undergoing some sort of environmental stress tend to have more problems with pests and diseases than those that are experiencing good growing conditions. Apparently, healthy plants have ways of making themselves less attractive to pests, while those undergoing stress don't have the energy to fight back.

It may be a bit of a logical leap, but maybe this bird was more vulnerable, either because she was genetically less resistant or because her immune system was challenged for some other reason at that time.

 

[scottcaddy]

We have seen just one or two birds out of a 20 bird group have mites, and it seems to be the same ones most of the time.
Just what I have seen here with our birds, you mileage will vary.
Scott

 

[ronott1]

Good morning everyone
First day back at work for me after almost 2 weeks off. I gave in and bought a couple of cords of firewood as a padding for winter. That's being delivered this afternoon, then it's off to treat the girls.
I hope that everyone has a great Saturday.
Thanks for all of the help. I want to make sure that I'm doing the right thing for them.

I hope work goes well for you! Work for me will be very busy as the Fall Quarter starts at UC Davis. Fall Quarter is the busiest time of the year.

You are doing great with treating the mites!

 

[ronott1]

I can't say for chickens, but I have heard that with horses and goats, if you do a fecal check on the animals in the herd before you treat for worms, you will find that most of the worms are in just a few animals. The numbers I have heard are that 80% of the worms will be in 20% of the animals, and another 20% will be nearly worm-free. If you repeat the test every time you worm, you'll find it's the same animals each time; some animals are just naturally parasite resistant. Some goat breeders have managed to have nearly parasite-free herds by selling off the wormy ones, and only keeping the parasite-resistant as breeding animals.

In horticulture, it is well known that plants that are undergoing some sort of environmental stress tend to have more problems with pests and diseases than those that are experiencing good growing conditions. Apparently, healthy plants have ways of making themselves less attractive to pests, while those undergoing stress don't have the energy to fight back.

It may be a bit of a logical leap, but maybe this bird was more vulnerable, either because she was genetically less resistant or because her immune system was challenged for some other reason at that time.

fecal float tests are not that great for finding worms. It is because the animal does not shed worms all the time. It is likely that all of them have worms but at a different degree

 

[Bunnylady]

fecal float tests are not that great for finding worms.

True, but when you have the same animals testing in low numbers in repeated tests over time, it becomes pretty unlikely that their parasites just happen not to be shedding eggs on the day of the test. It seems much more likely that the number of eggs are low because the number of parasites are also low.

This natural resistance has been of great interest to people concerned with antiparasitic drug resistance in parasites. There are populations of barber pole worm (a really nasty goat parasite) that are completely unfazed by everybody's go-to, Ivermectin. Breeding goats that are naturally resistant to the worms means the goat owners don't have to find a possibly more toxic and expensive alternative. Horse owners can choose to only dose the horses with serious worm loads, and leave the horses with just a few worms untreated, and not feel they are neglecting the health of their animals. This approach only subjects some of the worm population to the drugs, leaving some unexposed and (hopefully) keeping the genes for susceptibility in the population, reducing the chances of the population as a whole becoming resistant to the wormers - or at least, that's the idea.

 

[ronott1]

True, but when you have the same animals testing in low numbers in repeated tests over time, it becomes pretty unlikely that their parasites just happen not to be shedding eggs on the day of the test. It seems much more likely that the number of eggs are low because the number of parasites are also low.

This natural resistance has been of great interest to people concerned with antiparasitic drug resistance in parasites. There are populations of barber pole worm (a really nasty goat parasite) that are completely unfazed by everybody's go-to, Ivermectin. Breeding goats that are naturally resistant to the worms means the goat owners don't have to find a possibly more toxic and expensive alternative. Horse owners can choose to only dose the horses with serious worm loads, and leave the horses with just a few worms untreated, and not feel they are neglecting the health of their animals. This approach only subjects some of the worm population to the drugs, leaving some unexposed and (hopefully) keeping the genes for susceptibility in the population, reducing the chances of the population as a whole becoming resistant to the wormers - or at least, that's the idea.

It is a very interesting subject. I did read that most people raising either sheep or goats have given up on completely killing off worms in the herd so resistance would be a good goal.

resistance may not be something you can breed for though since immune systems are very complicated and influenced by a lot of factors. It is work trying though.

 

[Alaskan]

my baby sister has a bunch of goats... in Texas, where there are so many worms...

she has found the genetics for worm resistance and heavy worm loads very straight forward.