Making Decisions

[KDailey]

I've just had my favorite cuckoo maran pullet die last night from a respiratory disease. After looking up information about it, I realize that it is a disease that the bird can carry for life and show no symptoms thus spreading the disease, sometimes unknowingly by the owner, to other chickens.

I believe the sickness was brought in by some new birds, two silkies. After losing my favorite pullet I had my boyfriend take care of the two silkies after I came to work, hopefully before they really spread it to the other chickens.

This is my first experiance with contagious sickness in my flock. I realize now I wasn't prepared for something like this and that I cannot attach myself to these birds on that deep of a level. Yes I can have favorites and hopefully nothing will happen to them but chickens are so fragile compared to your dog or horse that they can die just like that, even your favorites.

When my boyfriend went down to take care of the silkies, he sent me a text message saying that another cuckoo maran and a buff orpington are now sick too.

I've had to come to the decision that any birds that contract this disease gotta go. I can't let my emotions get in the way of the health of my flock. By making this decision now, hopefully it will help me in the long run when I feel bad about having to put down a bird I've grown attached to.

I felt horrible when I thought I might have to have my boyfriend put down my favorite pullet, and I'm glad she didn't make me have to make that decision for her. RIP Lola

 

[Hippie Chicks Mom]

Do you think it is something that antibiotics would help?

 

[foxypoproxy]

baytril will get rid of respiratory infections but i don't know about the carriers

 

[KDailey]

I tried antibiotics with my favorite pullet and she died within days. I had to force feed her scrambled eggs because she wouldn't eat anything.

Right now we're contemplating how to handle the rest of the birds. We've seperated all the birds that aren't showing any symptoms. If we see a slight bubbling in the eyes, someone sneezes, they go to the sick pen to see if it really is it or a fluke.

We had another maran and a buff orp. getting funny eyes and we seperated them and gave them tylan. the maran cleared up immediately so he'll probably be ok and will go back with the others. We think the buff might just be injured near his eye because he's not acting lethargic or anything, his eye is just funky. We'll watch him for any other signs and go from there.

We're not going to cull a bird until we're sure they've got it but we also don't want to keep a bird that would just spread it around.

My neighbor who lives several acres away from us constantly has chickens in the sick pen with this disease and she couldn't figure out why. She'd cure the birds and then all of a sudden it would pop back up. Now I know that the birds that were sick weren't showing symptoms anymore but were still spreading the disease. Unfortunately she is very attached to all her birds and wouldn't dream of selling them all or culling. She's ok with battling sick and dying chickens all the time.

I'm not ok with that. Constantly sick birds means constantly buying more medicine and more time. I'd much rather have happy healthy birds that I can enjoy.

I've read that the incubation period is 24-48 hours. So now that we've got the birds seperated we'll watch for the next couple weeks and take out any birds that get it and cull them. I'm hoping this will get rid of the virus in my flock.

 

[dawg53]

Quote:
Baytril will treat the symptoms, but wont cure the disease.

 

[dawg53]

Quote:
Here's a link to incubation periods of various poultry diseases:
http://www.amerpoultryassn.com/respiratory_disease.htm

 

[KDailey]

Would you suggest completely culling the flock? I'm not in the hundreds or anything.