Danz, yes the Starlings are the disease carriers, that is what I was told by a local breeder. I hate those birds myself, we used to have a flock of them every year that made a nest in my clothesline poles in my backyard when I lived in Derby. I had an old fashioned type of clothesline there until I took it all out & those darned noisy things would get in the poles & nest & then dive at you when you came out there. Thank goodness we don't seem to have any here, knock on wood. We have lots of other birds, but not those. I don't know what other wild birds carry that respiratory stuff. I have feeders out in my front yard & mostly what I'm getting at them this year are finches, cardinals, woodpeckers, chickadees, bluejays, & I can't remember the name of the other small bird. Then we have mockingbirds that stay all year round too.
IVY, you need to get your DH in to a Cardiologist PDQ, don't waste any more time on those idiots, just bypass them, he needs to get care right away. It would be worth the drive if you could get him in somewhere & don't let them put you off, stress to them how serious his condition is.
Well my DH actually helped me get the other dog run moved & put back up closer to the house today. I was surprised he helped me put it up. I had just asked that he help me move the panels because it's not a small one, it's 6 ft by 12 ft. I had disassembled it & set it aside because I knew that I was going to need to move it & it was too big to move without taking it apart. Fortunately it only involved taking a few brackets & bolts off to get it apart. I don't have a cover over it right now, but I did start on putting one on this evening. I ran out of wire though, so I'll have to run & get more tomorrow so I can put it on & get my tarp put over the top for shelter for the pups. I had the other run they were using all tarped over to keep the rain & wind out, but now have to do the other one. The pups went in the new dog house just like it was the same one they had been sleeping in, so they seemed happy. They're both igloo style dog houses & this one actually is a newer one than the one I have had for years, I found it recently on Craigslist. It was missing the vent piece & the flap door, but I was able to order those direct from the company, so that worked out fine. It was still cheaper than new even with ordering parts. I'm hoping to use this dog run for a chicken pen after the dogs don't have to be shut in at night any more. I will just have to put hardware cloth all the way around it to make it more secure when I use it for the chickens or maybe not if my pups are old enough to do their job.
My new Ameraucana rooster stood out there all day & crowed his head off & then this afternoon it sounded like he was growling for hours, he's still really mad about being put in that pen. I sure hope he settles down & accepts that he's going to have to live in there. I thought if I put his hens in with him that he would be happy, but that's not what his idea was I guess, it was to take over Big Red's whole flock & his position as alpha rooster. I'm sure he would have been a good rooster for the general laying flock, but I need him for a breeder. Big Red is so very happy to be back in charge of his flock again though & the other roosters are equally happy that Blackie isn't able to get to them now. They all are wearing battle wounds right now from the darned guy. I sure hope they all get healed up. Big Red got the worst of it all, his poor comb & wattles are just bloodied. I sprayed some of that blue stuff all over his wounds, so hopefully nobody would pick on him & they haven't seemed to. I noticed the BC Marans rooster & the Speckled Sussex rooster both have wounds on their combs also, just not to the extent that Red got it. I truly believe that if I had not separated them that Blackie would have killed Big Red, he was fighting to the death. Of course Big Red has that huge big red comb & wattles to get bloody & Blackie has the small comb that Ameraucanas have, so he didn't have something so big to grab & peck. Both of these roosters are young & full of themselves, so I guess I shouldn't be that surprised they went at it like they did, it was just upsetting to me to have them getting hurt like that. I don't know how long it will take for my hens to acclimate to being moved again & start laying once again. I guess when they finally do I can start incubating some of them. Probably by the time they get over all of this ruckus it will be time to start collecting eggs to incubate anyway. I just didn't want to hatch out anything until it was a little closer to warmer weather.