Is their anything I can do instead of quarantine for new birds?

[mstricer]

We have 39* and they say its warm and nice day.

 

[<3 N.C Chicken Chick <3]

where I live we have 4 deffinate seasons. Summer it gets really really hot like bake a chicken hot, in spring its perfect, in fall its pretty nice, but breezey, in winter compared to the rest its cold. We maby get 1 snow 2 times at the most. 39* thats cold. For a visual, I usual am able to wear shorts on christmas, no shorts this time

h ow long have you lived in Ohio?

 

[chicken grandma]

N.C. Chicken
Every time you put new chickens in together they can get sick.

I bought two new chickens and had a vet check them. They had coccidia so I did not keep them.

Then I bought two new chicks from a hatchery. Had the vet test them for worms and coccidia. And do a physical examination on them.
He gave them a clean bill of health. I quarantined them in a cage in my house for 4 weeks.

When I put them in the coop my other hen got sick within a week. I had to have them all culled because
they all had a serious respiratory infection.

Just warning that it is very risky to mix new chickens in. Maybe better to hatch some of your own.

 

[<3 N.C Chicken Chick <3]

What about getting chicks would that be ok? How do you know if they have co/ worms?

 

[foxypoproxy]

It is very important to quarantine and to take it very seriously.
Believe me, take it from someone who had to put down their entire flock...
Even when my new chickens were quarantined they still got my other chickens sick.
If it was as easy as treating all the chickens for something they could get, then it wouldn't be so much of an issue.
The problem is that their are disease out their like Corzya, Mycoplasma, Mareks, ILT.
Lots of these disease will make your chickens carriers for life once they are infected/exposed and they are very contagious.
So you just can't put all the chickens together and give them medicine because it could be something that isn't curable or treatable.

Your quarantine area should not be anywhere close to where your flock is.
Some diseases can travel by air and soil transmission.
It is always very important to constantly sanitize after working with the new birds.
Diseases can be carried on your skin and clothes.
I would work with your flock first then work with the quarantined birds second.

Because there is so much of a risk buying adult birds, i have choose to only hatch out eggs or buying hatchery chicks.
So if you don't want to quarantine, just get some hatchery chicks or hatching eggs.

Losing my entire flock was heartbreaking and now i'm totally paranoid.
I have to oxine/bleach out there coop, put hydrated lime in the run, and wait a few months before i can have chickens again.

One little mistake or underestimating a disease can ruin everything.
Please understand i am saying all this with the best intentions.
I am not trying to scare you, or pick on you, or anything like that, so please don't take this the wrong way.
But i just never want anyone to have to go through what i went through.
If you can prevent something horrible like that from happening then i think people should know.

Anyway, good luck with your future flock!

 

[<3 N.C Chicken Chick <3]

So I called the man about that americona chicken and told him in nicer words but the gest was I am no longer intersted. But the other chicken is a silkie polish whos mate died in the hurricane, and I have been talking to the owner for weeks now. I don't want to say I can't get her. But he did mention that he had to treat his flock for something, like a cold.

 

[1muttsfan]

Not all infections can be treated with antibiotics. Viruses in particular can't. In addition stress can bring latent infections out, such a the stress of a new home and a new group of chickens.

 

[<3 N.C Chicken Chick <3]

Ok I'll email him. I feel so bad now. Better to just get my own chicks.

 

[CMV]

Huge red flag. Chickens don't get colds. They get CRD which as foxypoproxy is trying to tell you is devastating.

 

[<3 N.C Chicken Chick <3]

Ok I am no longer getting new chickens.

You guys saved my flock.

Thanks !