I had pretty much made the decision not to vaccinate for anything because I really don't know anyone who has had any disease in their flocks, but I almost changed my mind a few weeks ago. I went out to feed one evening and one of my cockerels sounded like he was growling from about 10 ft away. He actually had a terrible loud crackling in his throat when he breathed. I immediately isolated him, but I was TERRIFIED of what he might have had because of the possibility of it passing to the rest of the birds. I didn't know much about the respiratory diseases that chickens get, but I did know that many of them are treatable but not curable, and that infected birds could remain carriers for life. I read everything I could that night, but my boy just didn't have any other symptoms. His eyes were bright and clear, no sneezing, no discharge or bloody exudate, no facial swelling, and no loss of appetite or decreased activity. He would only cough occasionally like he was trying to clear his throat. I thought perhaps he had a gapeworm, but he wasn't stretching his neck to breathe.
I spent 2 HOURS on the phone the next day trying to find someone to help me that could test him so I might be able to protect the rest of my flock. None of the local vets or the one in surrounding areas will treat chickens, and they had no idea what I was asking. It was like speaking a foreign language. I even called our parish 4-H office and they couldn't really help either. Our agent called and spoke to his contact at the LSU Agcenter and was told they could only really help if they did a necropsy. At that point I was willing to do just about anything. I wanted to find out what the problem was so I could vaccinate the birds that had not been exposed to the cockerel. I called the LSU vet school and spoke to their avian specialist and made an appointment with the expectation they would euthanize my boy and do a necropsy. When I brought him in, though, Dr. Tully immediately said he didn't think that was necessary. He ruled out most infectious disease because of the total lack of symptoms. My boy was spry and was eating and drinking. He ran all around their exam room and inspected everything. They ended up doing a ton of tests and such and used him as a teaching tool since they rarely see a chicken. They did an endoscopy (too funny...on a chicken?!) and found that he had an injury to his glottis and trachea that had become infected. They think he swallowed something he wasn't supposed to. Silly chicken.
I guess the point to my long, drawn out story is that now I'm back on the fence about vaccinations. So many of those respiratory diseases are very serious, and a couple of them can't be cured and from what I understand, the entire flock would have to be killed and all housing disinfected and treated before you could start over. Again...terrifying. I am hoping some of the more experienced people here can chime in and provide more information. In addition to most of my chickens being like pets, I have a large financial investment to protect.
