Thank-you for posting your experience which had to be such a hard decision. We went through the same thing two months ago with forty RIR three month old pullets that we bought from a gentlemen who incubated and hatched eggs from breeder sources. He was a very nice man and had no idea that the eggs he was buying were infected by carrier hens.
The chicks did very well at first, and then started dropping like flies, and when we were at eighteen survivors, the Vet said that even though many might survive, his recommendation was to cull them since they were carriers. My chickens are pets (we don't eat any of them) and raise them to produce eggs. Even though the remainders looked fine, we still went forward out of fear that we would loose our whole flock!
Unfortunately, this year we have seen more sickness in our older birds then we have in the last seven years of raising chickens. I have gone through more Sulmet in the last two months then I could ever imagine!
This may just be one of those years..........seems like from the postings that many people are experiencing these challenges, but hopefully they are taking the responsible approach which will prevent others from experiencing what we did!
TO BETTER BIRDS AND A GREAT 2010!!!!
The chicks did very well at first, and then started dropping like flies, and when we were at eighteen survivors, the Vet said that even though many might survive, his recommendation was to cull them since they were carriers. My chickens are pets (we don't eat any of them) and raise them to produce eggs. Even though the remainders looked fine, we still went forward out of fear that we would loose our whole flock!
Unfortunately, this year we have seen more sickness in our older birds then we have in the last seven years of raising chickens. I have gone through more Sulmet in the last two months then I could ever imagine!
This may just be one of those years..........seems like from the postings that many people are experiencing these challenges, but hopefully they are taking the responsible approach which will prevent others from experiencing what we did!
TO BETTER BIRDS AND A GREAT 2010!!!!
