We need to use vaccines thoughtfully.
Vaccines are effective and can wipe out diseases.Polio is a human disease that has been almost wiped out world wide; with a few rare pockets of people that do manifest it (they are not vaccinated and get it from a wild primate). Our risk of getting the disease is almost nil because EVERYONE is vaccinated. Whooping cough also almost wiped out until a few parents decided not to have their children get vaccinated and now it's back. And some children have died. This is sad and avoidable. State of Massachusets has mandatory vaccinations for children and they are free. These are the basic ones; not the kind needed when traveling abroad.
My horses get vaccinated for the diseases they are more likely to encounter; they do NOT get all equine vaccines because NOT every disease is a problem in my area. They do get many others, especially the babies.
Mereck's is out there; maybe it hasn't made it to your flock because other flocks around you are vaccinated. I just seems to me (reading BYC) that the majority of birds do die of this. Mereck is fairly cheap; Some of the horse vaccines are $20 per dose. Merecks is cheap, very cheap per dose. I know it's harder when you only have a few, but still $3-4 dollars per bird to vaccinate???? Isn't that less expensive that the cost of feeding the chickens and it's a one time vaccine.Vaccines work well.
There is another thread, sorry don't remember where, that give specific info on how to divide the Merecks vaccine up for multi-doses.
Most vaccines work no matter the age of the animal; if we put the chicks out at 5 weeks to be exposed to the soil to become immune to coccidia, why wouldn't the chick also be able to be vaccinated for Merecks at that age too??? My feed store is too lazy to check whether or not the birds they sell have been vaccinated for this, so I have many small batches that I plan to do to be sure. And I'd like to hatch a few myself and will vaccinate.
Great thread, nice to hear everyones experiences.
Vaccines are effective and can wipe out diseases.Polio is a human disease that has been almost wiped out world wide; with a few rare pockets of people that do manifest it (they are not vaccinated and get it from a wild primate). Our risk of getting the disease is almost nil because EVERYONE is vaccinated. Whooping cough also almost wiped out until a few parents decided not to have their children get vaccinated and now it's back. And some children have died. This is sad and avoidable. State of Massachusets has mandatory vaccinations for children and they are free. These are the basic ones; not the kind needed when traveling abroad.
My horses get vaccinated for the diseases they are more likely to encounter; they do NOT get all equine vaccines because NOT every disease is a problem in my area. They do get many others, especially the babies.
Mereck's is out there; maybe it hasn't made it to your flock because other flocks around you are vaccinated. I just seems to me (reading BYC) that the majority of birds do die of this. Mereck is fairly cheap; Some of the horse vaccines are $20 per dose. Merecks is cheap, very cheap per dose. I know it's harder when you only have a few, but still $3-4 dollars per bird to vaccinate???? Isn't that less expensive that the cost of feeding the chickens and it's a one time vaccine.Vaccines work well.
There is another thread, sorry don't remember where, that give specific info on how to divide the Merecks vaccine up for multi-doses.
Most vaccines work no matter the age of the animal; if we put the chicks out at 5 weeks to be exposed to the soil to become immune to coccidia, why wouldn't the chick also be able to be vaccinated for Merecks at that age too??? My feed store is too lazy to check whether or not the birds they sell have been vaccinated for this, so I have many small batches that I plan to do to be sure. And I'd like to hatch a few myself and will vaccinate.
Great thread, nice to hear everyones experiences.
