HollyOakFarm
Songster
Hi all,
This is my first post here. I'm a long time lurker in the forum though. You all are an impressive source of knowledge..... so, here's my issue:
We just vaccinated two groups of chicks for Merek's. The first group (Svart Hona and Hedemoras) was vaccinated Monday of this week at 1-2 days old. The second group (Olandsk and Swedish Flower) was vaccinated tonight at 1-2 days old.
On Monday of this week, my livestock vet showed me how to dilute vaccine and inject chicks. She vaccinated a gray Hedemora chick to show me how. Then I vaccinated the other 8 chicks in that group myself.
Tonight I vaccinated a second batch (Olandsk and Swedish Flowers) of chicks, from a totally different breeder and incubator.... with a fresh batch of vaccine, and by the 12th chick we noticed that there wasn't enough vaccine in the vile to do all of them. Which is alarming because the vile is supposed to treat 1000 chicks. My daughter and I went over the dilutant instructions from the vaccine pamphlet and realized that we were told how to dilute the vaccine wrong. From my math, we gave most of the chicks a dose concentrated 50-100 times greater than we are supposed to.
The 1st chick, the Hedemora, started an odd behavior after getting vaccinated. It suddenly runs backwards when eating or drinking. Looked neurological. I started treating with vitamins in case it was a wry neck. Then tonight, after vaccinating the second group, an Olandsk chick started doing the same running backwards behavior.
I've messaged my vet. I'm waiting to hear back.
Has anyone encountered this before? If the neurological stuff is from the vaccine, will the chicks recover?
The gray chicks running backwards behavior did seem less frequent this evening and it's eating and drinking like the rest of the chicks. Looks and acts fine (except for occasionally running backwards). I hate to think I hurt any of the chicks, even if it was unintentionally. Thanks in advance for any advice. Chick in question in photo.
This is my first post here. I'm a long time lurker in the forum though. You all are an impressive source of knowledge..... so, here's my issue:
We just vaccinated two groups of chicks for Merek's. The first group (Svart Hona and Hedemoras) was vaccinated Monday of this week at 1-2 days old. The second group (Olandsk and Swedish Flower) was vaccinated tonight at 1-2 days old.
On Monday of this week, my livestock vet showed me how to dilute vaccine and inject chicks. She vaccinated a gray Hedemora chick to show me how. Then I vaccinated the other 8 chicks in that group myself.
Tonight I vaccinated a second batch (Olandsk and Swedish Flowers) of chicks, from a totally different breeder and incubator.... with a fresh batch of vaccine, and by the 12th chick we noticed that there wasn't enough vaccine in the vile to do all of them. Which is alarming because the vile is supposed to treat 1000 chicks. My daughter and I went over the dilutant instructions from the vaccine pamphlet and realized that we were told how to dilute the vaccine wrong. From my math, we gave most of the chicks a dose concentrated 50-100 times greater than we are supposed to.
The 1st chick, the Hedemora, started an odd behavior after getting vaccinated. It suddenly runs backwards when eating or drinking. Looked neurological. I started treating with vitamins in case it was a wry neck. Then tonight, after vaccinating the second group, an Olandsk chick started doing the same running backwards behavior.
I've messaged my vet. I'm waiting to hear back.
Has anyone encountered this before? If the neurological stuff is from the vaccine, will the chicks recover?
The gray chicks running backwards behavior did seem less frequent this evening and it's eating and drinking like the rest of the chicks. Looks and acts fine (except for occasionally running backwards). I hate to think I hurt any of the chicks, even if it was unintentionally. Thanks in advance for any advice. Chick in question in photo.
