Well, it happened. I had a silkie hen who got weak and wobbly. I isolated her and gave her all the extra vitamins and nutrients out there, but she still wasn't getting any better. I thought maybe she had some kind of bacterial infection internally since she had no external symptoms aside from weakness and lethergy,so after talking with the state lab, decided to give her tetracycline. She got better!
A few weeks later my silkie cockerel didn't put himself in the coop and I noticed then he was weak and droopy. I brought him inside and gave him water, along with poultry cell and some egg. The next morning he was dead. I got scared because of the previous hen and now this guy......seemed like a contagious disease! I sent him into the lab and the next day a poulet started acting weak as well. I then just new in my heart it was MG ( hadn't heard of MS yet). She was the only one that showed a clear runny nose and then a couple days later her eyes were crusting over.
The lab results came back that my Oreo had MS. He died from only MS, no secondary infection. The lab came out to swab the other chickens and take my sick one. It turns out the rest my chickens have MS too. I have ten left ( 4 silkies, and 6 polish). The poulet that was sick had MS and she was dying from a different cause than Oreo. Milkshake , my poulet, had air saculitis from the MS. Oreo didn't show much of anything accept some fluid in his sinuses.
I now have a few other chickens with what sounds like a stuffy nose.
I keep reading about people with chickens that have symptoms of limping and paralysis and/or colds etc., well there are two types of symptoms from MS, the one causes CRD and the other causes swollen joints and paralysis.
We started off just thinking a few silkies would be fun and my son could take care of them. Then we enjoyed them so much it grew and we ended up having polish too. I loved the idea of watching my broody silkies hatching babies that I decided we would have more silkies and get another pen to seperate my WCB polish out from the buff and get a rooster for them. I was going to give away or take the extra chickens we couldn't keep to the local auction. I just wanted to enjoy breeding them and hatch out a few babies as we went. I also started getting interested in cochins as well.
Now all the fun is gone. I now have ten chickens I don't know what to do with. They all have names and personalities, but my dreams are over. If I keep them I can't do anything with them but treat them for symptoms and watch them eventually die from MS. I know I can have a closed flock, but everytime I look at them all I can think about is MS. I know we can eat their eggs, but I can't bring myself to do it.
I know after reading A LOT of posts that there are many breeders and people who have this in there flock and are in denial or claiming ignorance with out testing. It is frustrating! If I start all over again I could just be in the same situation again. We either need to accept that it is out there and not worry about it and treat for it, ( which is what seems to be the norm) or start testing everyone to try to irradicate it.
I don't know what to do. I was just going to keep a closed flock, but I keep thinking about how I could start all over with a hardier breed and try to have fun again.
Does anyone have a sanctuary for carrier chickens? Boy, that would be nice!
Well, thanks for an ear ( or eyes
)
Sincerely not knowing what to do,
Michele
Oh, and yes, the state lab said that most of Maryland has MG/MS positive flocks! So I can't speak for the rest of the country but from reading other threads where people have spoken to their state lab and having spoken to my state lab, it appears that several states on the east coast have been taken over. If you look at how many sales are coming from hatcheries and from all the breeders who go to shows and swaps, and all the eggs/live birds shipped everywhere, wild birds, and just plain the obvious, MG/MS is everywhere! Yes, that will cause people to become relaxed about it, but I think they already have. As I stated above, what should we do about it? We should all seriously consider this situation and try to come together as friends to figure out what should be done!
A few weeks later my silkie cockerel didn't put himself in the coop and I noticed then he was weak and droopy. I brought him inside and gave him water, along with poultry cell and some egg. The next morning he was dead. I got scared because of the previous hen and now this guy......seemed like a contagious disease! I sent him into the lab and the next day a poulet started acting weak as well. I then just new in my heart it was MG ( hadn't heard of MS yet). She was the only one that showed a clear runny nose and then a couple days later her eyes were crusting over.
The lab results came back that my Oreo had MS. He died from only MS, no secondary infection. The lab came out to swab the other chickens and take my sick one. It turns out the rest my chickens have MS too. I have ten left ( 4 silkies, and 6 polish). The poulet that was sick had MS and she was dying from a different cause than Oreo. Milkshake , my poulet, had air saculitis from the MS. Oreo didn't show much of anything accept some fluid in his sinuses.
I now have a few other chickens with what sounds like a stuffy nose.
I keep reading about people with chickens that have symptoms of limping and paralysis and/or colds etc., well there are two types of symptoms from MS, the one causes CRD and the other causes swollen joints and paralysis.
We started off just thinking a few silkies would be fun and my son could take care of them. Then we enjoyed them so much it grew and we ended up having polish too. I loved the idea of watching my broody silkies hatching babies that I decided we would have more silkies and get another pen to seperate my WCB polish out from the buff and get a rooster for them. I was going to give away or take the extra chickens we couldn't keep to the local auction. I just wanted to enjoy breeding them and hatch out a few babies as we went. I also started getting interested in cochins as well.
Now all the fun is gone. I now have ten chickens I don't know what to do with. They all have names and personalities, but my dreams are over. If I keep them I can't do anything with them but treat them for symptoms and watch them eventually die from MS. I know I can have a closed flock, but everytime I look at them all I can think about is MS. I know we can eat their eggs, but I can't bring myself to do it.
I know after reading A LOT of posts that there are many breeders and people who have this in there flock and are in denial or claiming ignorance with out testing. It is frustrating! If I start all over again I could just be in the same situation again. We either need to accept that it is out there and not worry about it and treat for it, ( which is what seems to be the norm) or start testing everyone to try to irradicate it.
I don't know what to do. I was just going to keep a closed flock, but I keep thinking about how I could start all over with a hardier breed and try to have fun again.
Does anyone have a sanctuary for carrier chickens? Boy, that would be nice!
Well, thanks for an ear ( or eyes
Sincerely not knowing what to do,
Michele
Oh, and yes, the state lab said that most of Maryland has MG/MS positive flocks! So I can't speak for the rest of the country but from reading other threads where people have spoken to their state lab and having spoken to my state lab, it appears that several states on the east coast have been taken over. If you look at how many sales are coming from hatcheries and from all the breeders who go to shows and swaps, and all the eggs/live birds shipped everywhere, wild birds, and just plain the obvious, MG/MS is everywhere! Yes, that will cause people to become relaxed about it, but I think they already have. As I stated above, what should we do about it? We should all seriously consider this situation and try to come together as friends to figure out what should be done!
