Cull or treat entire flock?

[TigerLand]

I have had chickens only for about 1yr now. I messed up and brought home some grown rir's and I've caught all kinds of heck ever since.. big mistake :/ I've lost 5 or 6 birds, I have 17 now..currently I'm treating the flock with terra vet 10 for gurgly sounds and infected eyes.. it's not bad, the birds are eating and drinking good, combs are a little pale but red for the most part. Their very active for sick chickens... It's just really starting to upset me because it seems they will get well, I'll wait for the withdrawal period to end and things go back to normal. The people up the road feel it necessary to have 30-40 "wild",dogs running around their property and everyone else's and they always come over here and stress my birds, often relapsing my chickens... It's hard finding .22 bullets.. I don't sell eggs for eating or hatching. I don't sell birds ever. We eat the extra roosters we hatch and eat the eggs ourselves, that's all their for.. I'm getting tired of dealing with this really. I have a lot of money invested in my birds, black copper marans, seramas and true rumpless araucanas.. if you were in my shoes, would you keep exterminating the dogs and treating the chickens, or would you cull the whole flock and start over. What would I use for disinfecting everything and how long of a wait before I can repopulate if I were to cull? Is it safe to eat the chickens and eggs with a flock with crd? It's not too much trouble to add tetracycline to their water when this happens, it's just very stressful for me having to deal with this every 6 months it seems.. everything was fine, I didn't have a problem for many months, went on a business trip for 4wks and my wife neglected to close the coop at night and left then running around the yard all day and the neighbors dogs that don't know what a bullet is came over and took out 10 chickens, stressed out the remaining chickens and now I have another outbreak.eeeeeeeeehh... Thanks in advance

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I know it doesn't help, but I feel your pain.
Are you positive it is CRD? Unless you know for sure what is ailing them I can't tell you what to use as a disinfectant.
Some things are simple, others require the housing to be vacant up to a year or more.
You can send a bird here for necropsy

Louisiana Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory
River Road Room 1043
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803
Phone: 225-578-9777 Fax 225-578-9784

That way you'll have a definite course of action.

And keep shooting dogs.

 

[TigerLand]

I've tried talking to neighbors.. They said I need to keep my chickens locked up..turned into a big deal and sheriffs showed up..I'm not positive it's crd but pretty sure from symptoms..I will have a necropsy done asap. How much does that normally cost?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Every state is different on the cost. California is free. Missouri is $85 other states are more or less. IMHO, it was worth every penny to know exactly what was going on.
They'll tell you if you call or they probably have costs listed on a website.

Once you have a diagnosis, we can help you with treatment and disinfecting buildings/grounds. The lab may be able to give you that info too.

If it is CRD, there is no effective treatment I'm aware of and after disinfecting housing you need to leave it vacant for a few weeks.
With Tetracycline, you have to discard eggs for over a month.
Tylan is one recommended treatment but survivors are carriers.
It is likely a reportable disease in most states.

As for the dogs. The way I look at it, your chickens aren't travelling across the country to your neighbors' places. Their dogs are on your property.
In most states, possibly all, it is the law that you can shoot a dog that kills your chickens. MO has a very strong law. If a dog 'worries' your chickens, you can track the dog across the state and shoot it wherever you find it except penned on its owners property.
They sheriff may not know the law. If he did, he may have told the neighbor to pen up his dogs.

I've had lots of dog attacks. I haven't killed one yet but I have a loaded shotgun on the back porch and I have penned dogs up to be taken by animal control so the owners have to pay a fine and now I have a paper trail so next time they will be dead.

 

[TigerLand]

Louisiana is pretty strict on diseases and such. I've heard from locals that they will show up and make you cull whole flocks if they feel it's necessary. We also have a law stating that ANY domesticated animal that is harassing, injuring or killing production livestock the owner has a right to shoot. But you better be sure you have evidence to support your actions.the sheriff wAnt there for the dogs, it turned into domestic violence after I became a Boy, a MFer and every other name you caN think of other than a white man. My neighbors are like the "bumpesses", the neighbors in "A Christmas story"

 

[cajun chicken]

Hey tigerland, did you end up culling the flock? Did you have a necropsy done? I'm asking because I'm in the same boat with the chronic respiratory problems. I'm close to Baton Rouge btw