My experience dealing with MG (Mycoplasma gallispectum)

[Southernbelle]

Quote:
That's what I'd be afraid of. You are a wonderful, generous and self-less person for offering to help me!!

I really want the help, but I'd be so worried about your babies at your house!

At some point I was going to PM you to tell you that EE roo I promised you out of my recent hatch wasn't going to happen due to all this.

I had 2 of the most adorable little EEs hatch out of my friends' eggs

 

[MoodyChicken]

Quote:
That's what I'd be afraid of. You are a wonderful, generous and self-less person for offering to help me!!

I really want the help, but I'd be so worried about your babies at your house!

At some point I was going to PM you to tell you that EE roo I promised you out of my recent hatch wasn't going to happen due to all this.

I had 2 of the most adorable little EEs hatch out of my friends' eggs

She could probably help. Wear old clothes and old shoes and take a shower before you leave. Ideally, throw the clothes out (if you don't want to throw em out, put them in a garbage bag, seal tight, and boil them later) and then take another shower as soon as you get home. You will definitely be safe if you do that.

 

[cariboujaguar]

OH MY! I am SO sorry! You are so brave and honest! You are thinking of the overall wellfare of all chickens and thus taking a great and tragic loss! you are truly selfless, I admie you and feel for you. Good luck building your flock back up, I am sure many on here will donate eggs to your cause... if I have any worth anything when it's time for you to start again I will send you some if you'd like

 

[NotTheMomma]

Quote:
That's what I'd be afraid of. You are a wonderful, generous and self-less person for offering to help me!!

I really want the help, but I'd be so worried about your babies at your house!

At some point I was going to PM you to tell you that EE roo I promised you out of my recent hatch wasn't going to happen due to all this.

I had 2 of the most adorable little EEs hatch out of my friends' eggs

She could probably help. Wear old clothes and old shoes and take a shower before you leave. Ideally, throw the clothes out (if you don't want to throw em out, put them in a garbage bag, seal tight, and boil them later) and then take another shower as soon as you get home. You will definitely be safe if you do that.

I'm willing to do this if you want me to!!! I was thinking of you today, and had to dig this thread up. If you haven't culled, please let me know. PM me so I don't miss it if you want. As you know, I'm not that far away.

I was also wondering just how common this is, and how many people have it, and don't even know. How frequent is it seen in the wild? Could we have a 'clean' flock, and be infected from a wild bird?

If so, makes me wonder if culling is even necessary. I just don't know.

But I will come help you, and probably cry with ya as well.

HUGS!

 

[MoodyChicken]

Quote:
I think it's fairly common. A lot of people get diseases like this in their flock, but they don't reaize it's serious so they let it run its course. Then, after the disease has done its thing and picked off the week, the strong survive but they are left as carriers. Potentially, a flock could eventually never show symptoms again but still continue to spread it to new birds. You could never, with a clean conscience at least, sell birds or even eggs from an MG infected flock as the buyer's entire flock would get sick (new exposure; first outbreak is always worst). Not sure about wild birds transmitting it though... it might be species specific, and I think it is. I know that Coryza cannot be transmitted by wild birds, and I think that's the case with most poultry diseases (cocci and Marek's are exceptions). I guess they could potentially spread it if they carried a contaminated object from one coop to the other, but how often do wild birds try to destroy their terrestrial cousins through biological warfare? lol

 

[Southernbelle]

I just wanted to post an update on everything here.

We have a family friend who will come in and do the culling for me. He comes from a farming background and is a good old country boy (man?) but he isn't farming himself. So he's comfortable with the job at hand, but won't be carrying it to any other animals. He lives out of town, so he's coming in this weekend. He's a very good friend of ours, so he's going to work for pizza and beer. I plan to take my kids out for the day and do something fun and when we get back, everything will be taken care of. I'll do the coop cleaning and sanitizing myself but I can handle that. Our next door neighbor has a huge burn pile and he's been burning brush a lot and we're going to burn the bodies there. The state vet said they were safe for consumption, but I have a hard time wrapping my mind around eating my pets, so I've chosen to burn them.

I've been going down more often and sitting with my chickens and just watching them. I've been feeding them a lot of treats from the kitchen. I ran out of laying pellets, so I filled their feeder with scratch and you'd'a thought they won the lottery. I have 4 broodies sitting on nothing and broodies used to make me so happy and now it's just sad.

I wanted to thank everyone who offered support and condolances. This BYC community is such a wonderful place and I can't even begin to tell you what it all means to me. I just wanted to give a public thank you to emvickey, magsrags, sonew123, halo, shortcake1806, MoodyChicken, gumpsgirl, preppy*hippie*chick and CityGirlintheCountry who have all offered me hatching eggs to help me rebuild and to NottheMama for offering to help me cull. I am just humbled and amazed by their generosity and you can all be sure I will find a way to pay it forward when I'm back on my feet. Thank you all SO, SO much for your gifts, I just can't thank you enough!

 

[LilbitChicken]

how terrible, this must be so hard on you. I am soooo sorry.

 

[goldeneggtees]

Hi Southernbelle, I'm so sad for you. The whole thing is just horrible. I'm crying as I write thinking of what you must be going through. Animals are such special creatures. You need to know they had a great life while they lived in your care. There are so many animals that are mistreated in this world but yours weren't. My 11 year old son wants you to know he is thinking of you and your situation and wants to tell you he cares and is sorry. We are all sorry.

 

[MoodyChicken]

I'm so sorry it's finally happening. You're doing the right thing though. Hang in there. *hugs* and more *hugs* I've always thought that burning was a nice way to dispose of something... they used to do that for kings you know. So they'll be going down like kings and queens.

On another note, I would like to correct a statement I made earlier. MG IS transmitted by wild birds. That's quite concerning. But apparently isn't that prevelant otherwise everyone would have MG in their flock.

 

[OrpingtonHopeful]

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A beautiful sentiment. I hope it brings you comfort, Southern Belle- I cannot imagine your grief and while I am very new to this, my heart goes out to you.

Best wishes and comfort to you and your family.