@Acornewell ~ I feel your pain! I'm so sorry for your Silkies and for what you are going through. Although you're dealing with cocci, this info below may help. When you receive your necropsy results, don't hesitate to email them with questions. They are very responsive and helpful.
I received this email today from Purdue's Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory as a reply to my continuing questions:
Dear Julie
Mycoplasma or chronic respiratory disease, is very common in backyard flocks and birds can harbor the bacteria without showing clinical signs. They tend to show signs during periods of stress. IF it is MG, the bacteria can never really be completely removed from the birds (it just hangs around in the sinuses and respiratory tract), but it is treatable with antibiotics (tylan is the treatment of choice). Unless you are selling hatching eggs or plan on trading the birds with others (making it possible to spread to other flocks) I would not worry overly much unless other birds begin to show signs.
In terms of deworming with wazine first, that was a suggestion I read in one of the PDF’s you had attached in a previous e-mail. (I told him that my vet suggested wazine, but I didn't say that my vet suggested using it before another product. However, I'll use the goat safeguard as he (Purdue) recommended.
In terms of Marek’s disease, no we did not find any on histopathology (which is needed to confirm Marek’s) that indicated Marek’s disease. Most backyard and commercial flocks actually likely have Marek’s disease on the premise, but it is very variable if birds will develop signs. The vaccine prevents tumors from forming but does not prevent viral infection. Therefore the best thing to do as you mentioned is keep practicing good biosecurity and ALWAYS purchase vaccinated chicks, or vaccinate your own birds.
Periodic clean outs of the coop and disinfection is always a good idea (especially routine cleaning and disinfection of feeders and waterers). Pebble (pea gravel) should be a fine substrate as long as they still have “comfy” areas to go to as well. If you have any large/heavy breeds/birds I would keep an eye on their feet for bumble foot.
For deworming we generally don’t recommend a routine “deworm” everybody approach. We recommend getting fecal samples checked (either by your local vet or here at the lab) to see what parasites are there, and that way we can use targeted deworming instead of going for a shotgun approach which contributes to medication resistance in the parasites.
Please let me know if you have any other questions.
Sincerely,
Geoffrey Lossie
I received this email today from Purdue's Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory as a reply to my continuing questions:
Dear Julie
Mycoplasma or chronic respiratory disease, is very common in backyard flocks and birds can harbor the bacteria without showing clinical signs. They tend to show signs during periods of stress. IF it is MG, the bacteria can never really be completely removed from the birds (it just hangs around in the sinuses and respiratory tract), but it is treatable with antibiotics (tylan is the treatment of choice). Unless you are selling hatching eggs or plan on trading the birds with others (making it possible to spread to other flocks) I would not worry overly much unless other birds begin to show signs.
In terms of deworming with wazine first, that was a suggestion I read in one of the PDF’s you had attached in a previous e-mail. (I told him that my vet suggested wazine, but I didn't say that my vet suggested using it before another product. However, I'll use the goat safeguard as he (Purdue) recommended.
In terms of Marek’s disease, no we did not find any on histopathology (which is needed to confirm Marek’s) that indicated Marek’s disease. Most backyard and commercial flocks actually likely have Marek’s disease on the premise, but it is very variable if birds will develop signs. The vaccine prevents tumors from forming but does not prevent viral infection. Therefore the best thing to do as you mentioned is keep practicing good biosecurity and ALWAYS purchase vaccinated chicks, or vaccinate your own birds.
Periodic clean outs of the coop and disinfection is always a good idea (especially routine cleaning and disinfection of feeders and waterers). Pebble (pea gravel) should be a fine substrate as long as they still have “comfy” areas to go to as well. If you have any large/heavy breeds/birds I would keep an eye on their feet for bumble foot.
For deworming we generally don’t recommend a routine “deworm” everybody approach. We recommend getting fecal samples checked (either by your local vet or here at the lab) to see what parasites are there, and that way we can use targeted deworming instead of going for a shotgun approach which contributes to medication resistance in the parasites.
Please let me know if you have any other questions.
Sincerely,
Geoffrey Lossie
