Mycoplasma... Gross!

[serendipity22]

Mycoplasma...

What a horrible word...

I've been extremely busy this week with Dr's visits, Vet's visits, setting up a booth at the fair for a club that I'm involved in, and working a part time job. So I've only seen my flock in the dark all week. Usually, I'm out there all the time but not this week. So I was out in my brooder pen the other night at 1am cause that's when I finally got home. I kept hearing this strange honk in my chicken house. Having never heard a chicken cough, I didn't realize what it was. So, I'm running around the next day and get home around 5:30pm and find one of my adolescent Delaware pullets DEAD. And I'm hearing honking everywhere. I'm looking at my flock and notice yucky eyes, snotty noses, sneezing and coughing.

So immediately, I put antibiotic and sulfa medication in the water because I had no idea what was happening. I called one of my friends and she said that she would bring a bottle of Tylan over and we would inject everyone with the antibiotic. I also sprayed my whole barn with bleach solution, stripped the bedding and sprayed the floors, sprayed the dirt in my runs... Everything!

After figuring out what my birds have, I am so angry with myself. I brought this into my flock by purchasing adult birds from someone. And I quarantined them and everything. Apparently it can lie dormant and shed from a contaminated chicken's system at any time. There is a vaccination for it that can be given between 1 & 10 weeks before a bird is exposed. So I guess I'm gonna have to vaccinate any chicks that I ever bring here. As well as bleach my building really often to try to kill this.

Does anyone have experience with this? Advice?

 

[dlhunicorn]

perhaps I misunderstood, but did you say you are giving BOTH antibiotic AND a sulfa med in the water?

 

[speckledhen]

I'm sorry this is happening to you. Unfortunately, even quarantine won't necessarily help if a bird is a lifetime carrier of a disease like CRD, etc. It can appear healthy and still shed disease to your flock later on and there is little way for you to know unless you have it actually tested during quarantine, something not many of us would probably do. It sure is a gamble buying birds these days, no matter how careful we are or what procedures we follow; nothing is foolproof. Again, I'm sorry you're having to deal with this. Mycoplasma seems to be more common than ever.

 

[serendipity22]

Yea, live and learn.

Thanks for the input.

 

[speckledhen]

Sounds to me like you did everything right. I did, too, but it could have turned out for me just like it has for you. No one can see a carrier and so many buy birds all the time.

 

[Carole AM]

Oh yeah, I've had it here all summer long. I've been through the nastiness of it, but the last straw was when I lost my favorite pet rooster, Jimmy. un After that, I made the decision to take some birds to Purdue for necropsies. I did, and thats what mine had/has. Even the state vet came out! In fact, they are still working on the lab results!

I've used the Tylan injectable, antibiotics in the water, etc. and NOTHING has helped. Sorry! At least they aren't dying EVERY DAY now!

I posted about it in the other BYC--I'll look and provide the link. brb.....

 

[Carole AM]

Some of these get kinda long..... sorry about that.

Purdue, here we come-http://p098.ezboard.com/fbackyardchickensfrm1.showMessage?topicID=23262.topic

If you bought eggs from me-
http://p098.ezboard.com/fbackyardchickensfrm1.showMessage?topicID=23285.topic

State Vet's Visit-
http://p098.ezboard.com/fbackyardchickensfrm1.showMessage?topicID=23287.topic

Indiana Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory-
http://www.addl.purdue.edu/

Publications from Purdue-
http://ag.ansc.purdue.edu/poultry/extensio.htm


I hope some of this helps. Feel free to email me.

 

[serendipity22]

Thanks for the input, guys.

How is your flock doing now? I've only had 2 losses of adolescent birds so far. (Plus 13 2 week old chicks...) Have ordered some powder Tylan from Jeffers. Plan on injecting a couple of mopey birds with Tylan 50. Not sure what else to do except wait at this point.

**sorry for not responding sooner, went out of town for the weekend. Left the chickens with a very good bird sitter who medicated them while I was gone.**

 

[chicknmania]

I think we had it too. Both of our birds died that were sick. We haven't had any deaths or noticeable symptoms for about a week to ten days now. We disinfected everything with Oxine, and we also had a spell of very hot, dry weather during and right after they were sick, so I'm hoping that helped. I was told by someone that MG/MS usually is not fatal...obviously, that's not true. We bought the Tylan but I have always been told that you should not treat the whole flock with antibiotic, unless you really have a lot of them that are sick; otherwise it is harder for them to develop resistance on their own. I think this is true; we have been through enough in our own flock over the past couple of years to see that some birds will develop an amazing immunity to many things. And I think Oxine is wonderful stuff...I wouldn't be without it now. Also, MG/MS is often carried by migrating wild birds.

 

[Carole AM]

I agree with Chickenmania. Its probably ALWAYS going to be there, in the flock, once you get it. I've used Oxine too, and love it.

I've still lost a few, but from other reasons (old age, eggbound, etc.)