Mycoplasma

[mirandalola]

I've had a necropsy come back positive for mycoplasma. When I told the vet I planned on culling the flock and starting fresh, he cautioned me that backyard flocks almost always have mycoplasma! He said if I'm not planning on selling the eggs/meat, I should just keep them and treat them with antibiotics as needed.

What the hey?

What would you do? I have 8 4.5-week-old chicks, was planning on this being my starter flock that will eventually supply my family with all the eggs we need and maybe even eventually all the meat we need.

 

[Eggcessive]

That is a popular opinion in many backyard keepers. Unfortunately by the end of 2016 most of us will not longer be able to buy certain oral antibiotics over the counter. Those include Tylan powder and the tetracyclines and others. Injectable drugs like Tylan 50 and injectable tetracyclines may be available, and sometimes you can get certain drugs online. Many use Denagard, a bad tasting oral antibiotic available online for treatment and prevention of mycoplasma. Tylan 50 injectable can be given orally as well as by injection. 0.2 ml or 10 mg per pound is the dosage given twice daily for 3-5 days. Some use Baytril which is banned in poultry in the US.
I think it is very wise that you got testing done and consulted with your vet. Close your flock for sure, since any of your birds could infect other flocks, and it can also be passed in hatching eggs. Learn all you can about the disease, and there are many good threads on BYC and by Googling the disease. Sorry that you are dealing with this chronic disease. Here is some reading about Denagard and mycoplasma:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/819104/denagard-dosage
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/392918/anyone-familiar-with-denagard
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/disea...tion-mg-chronic-respiratory-disease-chickens/
http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/p...lasma_gallisepticum_infection_in_poultry.html
http://www.poultryhub.org/health/disease/types-of-disease/mycoplasmosis/
https://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail...8QbcgM79U34-OojD6hTqKVzwKtrO9k4ks9xoCuQ7w_wcB

 

[mirandalola]

Yeah, the vet warned me that I wouldn't be able to get the antibiotics starting in Jan 2017, and that both concerns me and doesn't: It's concerning that there will be medications that will be harder to get, that ALWAYS makes me angry! But at the same time, I don't really intend to be treating my birds with antibiotics all the time anyway.

I have the crazy idea forming in my brain, that if I just let nature take its course, let the birds fight this off on their own, they will produce genetically stronger offspring capable of fighting it off too. If this really is as endemic as the vet said, then even if I did cull my flock and try to start fresh with a mycoplasma-free flock, they'd get it eventually from the wild birds. I'll be free-ranging, and I am not even going to consider anything else.

I called the vet back and asked if this is MG or MS, and he said BOTH. Blah. But I also ran my idea past him and he said there is scientific evidence that it would work, that several generations down the line I'll have disease-resistant chickens. Right now, the chicks that are showing symptoms are only mildly sick and have been this way for over a week, so I have reason to believe that these chicks are already somewhat resistant.

I would love others' opinions on this plan. It's been 11 years since I got my degree in biology, it's been SO MUCH FUN to finally get to use the knowledge I spent years studying, but being a newbie I'm still unsure of myself