Duckling Diaries: the Life and Times of a Welshie Trio

[duluthralphie]

MG is or can be fatal in turkeys, I know if I have it the state will destroy my flock. That is the down side to all the testing I do. The upside is I know I am not spreading diseases.

I figure if I do get a disease, which I work hard to not get, I will just quit raising birds. No one gets into my bird area unless they have changed into the things I have here for them. I have my drive blocked with a huge keep out and biosecurity signs.

 

[Julie Birb]

Some chooks are just sickly, for some reason. Don't think it's a flock management thing as the rest of my beepers all got over it quickly.... I believe I have MG in my flock, but healthy birds can usually beat it just fine, not end up with gurgles and a runny nose for as long as she's had it.

The usual pattern of infection I see is a slight discharge and some sneezing in juvies, which clears up by the time I start laying. Some don't ever get it.

Another pro for dux- they didn't get it.

Is it a virus? Poor baby. I bet she isn't​ happy always being sick.

 

[BantyChooks]

Is it a virus? Poor baby. I bet she isn't​ happy always being sick.

No; despite the lack of a cell wall it is still a bacteria due to it not hijacking other cells.

 

[Julie Birb]

No; despite the lack of a cell wall it is still a bacteria due to it not hijacking other cells.

ugh, sounds complicated. Do antibiotics help.

 

[BantyChooks]

ugh, sounds complicated. Do antibiotics help.

Common antibiotics such as penicillin don't work, no.

Right, Ralphie? I had asked a vet about this, but that was a while ago. Need to dig up my notes again.

 

[BantyChooks]

Doesn't impact her quality of life any, it's just something that may make them more susceptible to other diseases. She was starting to get better a month ago but then she was attacked by a hawk and immediately relapsed.

 

[Julie Birb]

Is that because it's mutated into a resistant microbe or would other antibiotics handle it?

 

[BantyChooks]

Is that because it's mutated into a resistant microbe or would other antibiotics handle it?

Denagard (tiamulin hydrogen fumarate) is a derivative of the antibiotic pleuromutilin, so yes.

There are a few other meds that work for Mycoplasmas, Denagard is just the one I chose to research and use....

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19834086

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/pharmacology/antibacterial-agents/tiamulin-fumarate

 

[duluthralphie]

As far as I know, there are several strains of Maraks. So many people say they have Maraks without testing to confirm.

It makes the birds act drunk, lose balance and paralyzed from what I understand. I do know turkey dander is suppose to help ward it off in chickens.

There is a woman 50 miles from me that gets turkey manure feathers ,dander to help ward it off. Nature is so interesting, Chickens can kill turkeys if you have earthworms and the chickens have blackhead in them or your ground. Turkeys being the bigger better bird heal the chickens knowing the ungrateful chickens will kill them with a disease they probably got from a stinking dux in the first place..

I am not sure if anything actually kills maraks, I think it is like weeds in a garden, you never get rid of all of them you just want to keep the level manageable.

The moral of the story is DUX are EVIL!!

BTW I meet the woman with Maraks in a Walmart parking lot 10 miles from here and never touch her, or her car. I leave her the feathers and manure as skedaddle out of there. She is too dangerous to touch or even be near.

 

[Julie Birb]

Dux are innocent beings but that is horrid if they are the culprit. Sad for other birds. Ugh. I'd wear a hazmat suit to meet that woman. It's tragic that a bug can decimate all your birds you worked hard to acquire and raise.