Michigan

[Bianca67]

My goodness, there are some awful things happening on here, Raz thank goodness you could contact 911, Farmerboy I am so very sorry to hear the tests were +and you have to cull you flock

, Mom that must have been very scary for you hope they catch them. Praying that things settle down for everyone.

 

[Opa]

Quote: I've got to go with Olive on this one. A lot of the bad rap given commercial operations come from various anti organizations that skew the presentation to "prove" their on biases and sadly the media panders toward sensationalism to increase ratings. It's like all the bad press given the so called puppy mills. Exaggeration and in some cases out right lies result in the uninformed public believing it and having a laws passed based on emotion rather than science. The Missouri law failed in rural areas but the two major population centers of St Louis and Kansas City drew enough votes to push it thru. Farmers aren't going to mistreat their stock or ignore health issues because it will adversely affect their livelihood.

 

[Farmerboy16]

Quote: Originally Posted by Farmerboy16 I have asked my dad if we can go to the cattle auction on Thursday
Careful! That is where i got my sick chickens from (Saturdays) Don't wear shoes you are gonna wear home..... As far as the Denagard goes, I researched it and that's what they are using in the UK for MG. Studies show it to cure, but only if you catch it quick and give the meds right away! Otherwise they will still be carriers. It is generally only available with a prescription from a vet, but i found it for $50 through qc supply, in with the pig meds. (You can only get the "poultry" version in the UK) Here's what i know so far:
Dose is 1 Tb/ga water, or 10 mg/kg of weight, up to 20mg/kg for maximum effective dose. If you google tiamulin you will find some of the people using this. Using tetracycline wit it is supposed to increase effectiveness; Since reg tetracycline don't touch it, i considered combining it with doxycycline, which is used in human Mycoplasma treatment. Smith poultry sells "bird biotic" which is 100 mg/pill doxycycline.
The only reason it isn't considered a 100% cure is because if the air sacs in the lungs are scarred it won't penetrate that tissue. So if we were able to figure that one out..... I'm not sure if US vets are up to speed with the UK yet, so google will have to be your friend

Thanks for the info Fuzzy. I have just ordered the Denagard, so that will be the first step of the experiment of the curing the birds of the disease. If it works and my flock pass negative with flying colors, then , but if they failed the test, then I will begin the culling process. Regarding the Cattle Auction, I plan to wear shoes that I do not wear at home. We are going there just to get an idea what the cattle auction is like, and maybe find a farmer that has a heifer that we want at a later date. My dad wants to get the field planted of alfalfa, and other grasses before we get the heifer. What I am looking for is a Jersey, or Brown Swiss, or Milking Shorthorn.

 

[uchytil]

Thanks for the info Fuzzy. I have just ordered the Denagard, so that will be the first step of the experiment of the curing the birds of the disease. If it works and my flock pass negative with flying colors, then

, but if they failed the test, then I will begin the culling process.
Regarding the Cattle Auction, I plan to wear shoes that I do not wear at home. We are going there just to get an idea what the cattle auction is like, and maybe find a farmer that has a heifer that we want at a later date. My dad wants to get the field planted of alfalfa, and other grasses before we get the heifer. What I am looking for is a Jersey, or Brown Swiss, or Milking Shorthorn.

Pretty sure you are referring to Ravenna Auction? Anyway, they have dairy cows 1st Thursday of the month. My neighbor gets his deacons there in the spring. The poultry/rabbit auctions on Saturday mornings is fun to attend but I'm not sure about the viability of some "boxes" of chicks. The rabbits sure do fetch a hefty sum too.

Good luck with the meds. I thought there were a few other meds that worked on MG. Well, good luck - I for one will be checking back(words) for the outcome.

 

[chicken grandma]

I hope the U.K. is on to something with their antibiotic treatments. Wouldn't it be nice to rid the U.S.chicken flocks of Coccidia and MG and Pullorium? That would be fantastic.

Daron, I know you said that if necessary you were going to sell some infected chickens as meat birds and that sounds like a good use of the mature poultry. But something to consider is that when my chickens were found to have respiratory illness severe enough to be uncurable, the vet not only recommended that I put the chickens down, he also would not let me bury them in my back yard. He insisted on incinerating the bodies to prevent the spread of disease.

So because it is that easily spread, I am wondering if someone buys an infected chicken for meat if they should dispose of the head, feet, feathers in a way that is safe for their neigborhood/community birds/chickens? I don't think there is any threat to people, but there seems to be a great threat to other birds and chickens. Even in how we dispose of the bodies of chickens carrying chronic respiratory disease.

I'm just throwing this information out there in case any of us need to think about it in the future.

 

[Opa]

Got an email today from Tractor Supply informing me that it's now CHICK DAYS.

 

[Olive Hill]

Got an email today from Tractor Supply informing me that it's now CHICK DAYS.

Shhhh! I've promised the children EEs and I'm not ready yet. Don't tell them. LOL!

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

Shhhh! I've promised the children EEs and I'm not ready yet. Don't tell them. LOL!

 

[RBahmer]

Quote: Originally Posted by 1muttsfan I wonder how many people would find MG in their flocks if they were tested? What if most did? Would they all be culled? And what effect would that have on breeding populations of rare breeds?
x 2 You have to realize that the average joe probably can't diagnose birds, and that most people won't spend the bucks on what's consindered a cheap livestock. And even if they do figure it out, most country farmers wouldn't cull their entire flock because one has booger eyes, let alone wait any length of time to get new stock....I think this is something that is common and the only reason we are noticing it is because the "clean" birds get sick; Before there were clean flocks there was little to no outbreaks, because all were carriers and the weak ones died young, the strong ones lived. That's not a knock to the farmers, they probabaly don't know what the fuss is about, since they are not the ones with the "sick" birds because theirs are symptom free (carriers...)

In My Opinion I believe this is an unfair paragraph. Farmers can and do catch illnesses and diagnose them a lot quicker and easier than people give them credit for. I can look at my flock of sheep and with no symptoms present I can tell you if one is not feeling good. We can usually tell because we deal with it a lot more than most people do. I believe the difference between farmers and other people are we don't get bent out of shape because of it because we deal with things like this on a daily basis. That's just my opinion.

 

[RBahmer]

Got an email today from Tractor Supply informing me that it's now CHICK DAYS.

Me toooo YAAAA