Help! Sick flock! Is this Marek's Disease?

[dlhunicorn]

ditto the above post! (missed that you were using this)
I would suggest you remove immediately > why risk it?

 

[orplove]

I actually just use pine shavings for the birds...the same ones i use in the horse stall. They are bagged and shipped in from Canada and sold as "animal bedding". I am pretty sure that they are just pine with no other types of wood. (horse people are a little fanatic about this

)

 

[orplove]

oh. i meant to say that i will look into Aspen for them, but the nearest TSC is about an hour and half away from me in NH.

Too bad; i love that store!
I am speeding up the "out/semi-free range" process for them; IE buying another poultry net next weekend so that they can get outside to scratch and forage more. I really don't want to combine them with my older birds yet so i think this will be the best option. I am hoping that as soon as they are out, the respiratory issues will clear up!

 

[threehorses]

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Heyyyy I resemble that remark! yes, we are a little fanatic about them.

(That kind of tickles me for some reason.) Those are nice shavings and they last a really long time and keep things nice and clean. Our horses get respiratory illnesses really easily from the wrong bedding, too, so thankfully I knew about them before I started keeping chickens anything other than free range.

By the way, I re-emailed the guy from Poulin. (I hate half-answers - don't like to give them, don't like to receive them from feed companies) and I specifically asked him:

"Basically what I was trying to determine is whether or not the
vitamins/minerals were complete - not minimal, not just
'fortification', but a complete feed. Could you confirm that? Thank
you again."

He replied "These are all complete feeds."

I thought you might be interested.

 

[orplove]

Hi Threehorses!
Yes, I too am fanatical about what shavings i get for my girl!

Thanks for emailing Poulin again. I guess they are not very forthcoming with in depth data, are they? Oh, well. I think i am going to switch back to the Blue Seal Grower for now just to mix things up and see if they do any better on that feed.
I am happy to report that the hen seems pretty normal, and the roo is as close to normal as i think he is going to get. Slate is walking now, but he still has a slightly "off" gait and his left wing droops a bit, but other than that i think he is feeling ok. I saw him scratching outside today!

I have been holding off on starting the Tylan as i put them on Aviacharge 2000. I wanted to see if the vitamins would make a difference before i started the antibiotics. Some of the birds are still sneezing and barking a bit so i think i am going to start it next week. I have two questions about Tylan. 1 Can i mix it with the Aviacharge 2000 or should i only have them on one at a time? 2 What is the dosage for a one gallon waterer? (the Tylan bottle says one bottle for one gallon and then add the concentrate to 50 gallons.) The whole bottle says it equivalent to 100 g tylosin base. I just don't want to get the dosage wrong for them. Thanks again for your help!

 

[threehorses]

I know a lot of good poultrymen, show people, who really think BlueSeal is THE feed.

So if you have a good supplier who stores well, it should do well for you.

I agree on waiting on antibiotics for the vitamins usually. In this case, I'd be tempted to start it now. Do you have any with sinus or eye issues? If you do, let me know via PM.

As for using with anything, no - you must use one product in the water unless specified. Vitamins and meds don't really mix. You can certainly make a wet mashing using aviacharge water, though.

As for the Tylan, if it's the 100g bottle, you use 2 teaspoons of Tylan powder per gallon of water for five days. Make fresh daily. Give probiotics (any kind) daily for 7 days and then every other day for a week.



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