Mysterious illness throughout flock

[leadwolf1]

I don't believe the Marek's came from Mt Healthy but, I've never dealt with them. I hope you get to the bottom of it all soon.

 

[9avocados]

hi know i am late to this post but wanted to chime in that the same issues are happening with my flock of 15. i spoke with peter brown, the poultrydoc(very nice) yesterday and although nothing is positive he said it was either MG or Coryza and regardless of what it was the treatment/conclusion is the same: either put the whole flock down or medicate with antibiotics and then vaccinate (which is a $$ route to take) which still will not cure the problem.

I just cannot put my flock down so looks like we are stuck with it. ugh.

I brought in new chicks over the summer and ignorantly didnt quarantine. The new chicks which were Houdans- and I now believe just a weaker breed anyway- all got the puffy eyes/ lethargy/ parylzation before passing. Concurrently my older girls all started getting a cough/ sneezing, but no puffy eyes, and that went through the flock for a while, @6 weeks. Mind you this summer was brutally hot at times so we were all hating it for a while. In the last month I have finally felt like we are over the hurdle with all birds seeming happy and healthy but occasionally I will hear a little cough come from one and sometimes I feel like one or two just isnt feeling 100%. Also, I still have two younger birds that I got with the Houdans and they are still raspy and congested so I will prob give them antibiotics, or they might even have to be culled.....

Ugh! Wish I could rewind a few months and wish I had been more careful!!

Good luck to those of you dealing with this I know how hard it is!

 

[Haunted55]

I bought chickens from Mt Healthy they arrived may 7Th... i kept them in the house for 4 and a half weeks or so then i put them in our brooder coop which run is attached to the big run with a fence in between so they can see each other, it helps when we integrate them.... that was the last time i added anyone to my flock...

the state called today cause the nhvdl sent the necropsy report to them ... they said they think i got it from mt healthy.... looks like the chicks weren't that healthy.....

the state said they will have the real vet call me in the next few days to they can check into it..

I bought 12 chicks from TS in April and they came from Mt Healthy as well. All but 2 of them are dead now. Last year I went in with a friend on an order and got cornish rocks. 5 of them died before 2 weeks had gone by. One kept running in circles to the right, 4 more were just dead one morning. I'm not big on Mt Healthy.

The chicks I've gotten from McMurry seem to fair better. Not one death in the cornish rocks, 2 batches of 20 now, and the other chickens I added to my flock seem to be handling the Marek's, I now have, a lot better than the ones from Mt Healthy.

Another thing I have found with Mt Healthy, if you call them with questions about something being wrong, they immediately go on the defensive. "It's your fault the birds are dying" "All birds have salmonella" ect.. The other hatcheries...not so much. They will offer credit and advice. Maybe not much help when your flock is sick but it's something.

I don't believe the Marek's came from Mt Healthy but, I've never dealt with them. I hope you get to the bottom of it all soon.

leadwolf I wouldn't. Just my personal thoughts.

 

[Singlemaple]

I bought 12 chicks from TS in April and they came from Mt Healthy as well. All but 2 of them are dead now. Last year I went in with a friend on an order and got cornish rocks. 5 of them died before 2 weeks had gone by. One kept running in circles to the right, 4 more were just dead one morning. I'm not big on Mt Healthy.

The chicks I've gotten from McMurry seem to fair better. Not one death in the cornish rocks, 2 batches of 20 now, and the other chickens I added to my flock seem to be handling the Marek's, I now have, a lot better than the ones from Mt Healthy.

Another thing I have found with Mt Healthy, if you call them with questions about something being wrong, they immediately go on the defensive. "It's your fault the birds are dying" "All birds have salmonella" ect.. The other hatcheries...not so much. They will offer credit and advice. Maybe not much help when your flock is sick but it's something.
leadwolf I wouldn't. Just my personal thoughts.

Oh i forgot to mention that my mt healthy birds also got coccsidiosis...i think ( the hatchery told me that was it ) and i lost 12 of them... now the 13 left are all very tiny they should be full grown by now and should lay in a week or so...

this is my first year ordering from mt healthy all my birds i had before i got from mcmurray and i never had a problem with anything they where always healthy and i never lost one as a chick... these ones just keep dying.

i have 97 rhode island red roosters from their overstock meat bird special and i lost 3 in 2 days..

 

[leadwolf1]

Wow! I would have thought that a hatchery would have this under control. Assumptions can be dangerous! I wouldn't have ordered from Mt Healthy anyway. After their outbreak with salmonella, I was staying far, far away. My chickens are salmonella free. I would like to keep it that way.

9avocados...even though Peter Brown has a wonderful reputation, he cannot diagnose over the phone. If you read the OPs necropsy report, there is findings of Marek's. That is what caused the paralysis in her birds. If you are having these problems, please, do yourself and your flock a favor and have a necropsy done on the next fatality. Find out exactly what you are dealing with and how to protect the rest of your flock. Contact your local government extension and find out where your nearest state lab is. Give them a call and prepare in advance for a submission.

Boy am I glad that I never got any chicks from Mt Healthy!

 

[Haunted55]

Oh i forgot to mention that my mt healthy birds also got coccsidiosis...i think ( the hatchery told me that was it ) and i lost 12 of them... now the 13 left are all very tiny they should be full grown by now and should lay in a week or so...

this is my first year ordering from mt healthy all my birds i had before i got from mcmurray and i never had a problem with anything they where always healthy and i never lost one as a chick... these ones just keep dying.

i have 97 rhode island red roosters from their overstock meat bird special and i lost 3 in 2 days..

Leadwolf will tell you that if you've got Marek's, you'll eventually get it all. Cocci is just one of them. Some of my survivors should have been laying last month and still aren't. I don't know if they'll be late or never. I'm so sorry this has hit you as well.

 

[De Wet]

Hi

I speak today with one of our main vet companies in South Africa and we speak about MG and they told me in our country there is no poultry for example chickens and turkeys with MG free status everything have MG status which sometimes triggerd by a illness(secondary infection for example E Coli) then you get the symtoms it is just like cancer in human bodies which is been triggerd by a illness or so. I ask him but why is there vaccine then. He told me vaccine and all the stuff is a just a thing which build up the anti bodies against MG he told me some many years ago some university s here try to get MG free eggs but with no sucess. So I know many of you will not agree with that I just quote but is something to think about because I ask me some questions if there is no MG cure and you have a infected flock you always must culled it but some people does not culled it some breeding facillities use MG medicine for there chickens and there is no law who can prevent it to use it. I mean why not take all the tylosin and baytrills from the market and the peolpe will force to kill there poultry for a free MG enviroment in this case it is not. I mean MG infected birds and that was proven, have lived its whole life without any sickness. I mean how would you know Your flock is infected or not. If you ask me you will never know till you see the symtoms. So my advise treat the bird thirst and and cull if necesary poultry is exspensive even if you started over again what is the guarentee the birds your buy is not MG free, thats your word against the buyer, but I think if I work a percentage out how many free MG birs is outside there? there result is going be shocking. So I don"t say buy every where birds, a person must seek out the most healthy birds. But the whole thing making sense to me, specialy day old broiler chickens, you can buy them anywhere, but how many did die in the first week if there is thousands? I will say many I did work on a broiler farm and I see it with my own eyes and they die due to illness not due to heat or something else even if the chickens is vacine before delivery.

please note. I does not put the Quote to debate please make your own conclusion and do some research, i done mine

thanks

 

[Singlemaple]

Hi

I speak today with one of our main vet companies in South Africa and we speak about MG and they told me in our country there is no poultry for example chickens and turkeys with MG free status everything have MG status which sometimes triggerd by a illness(secondary infection for example E Coli) then you get the symtoms it is just like cancer in human bodies which is been triggerd by a illness or so. I ask him but why is there vaccine then. He told me vaccine and all the stuff is a just a thing which build up the anti bodies against MG he told me some many years ago some university s here try to get MG free eggs but with no sucess. So I know many of you will not agree with that I just quote but is something to think about because I ask me some questions if there is no MG cure and you have a infected flock you always must culled it but some people does not culled it some breeding facillities use MG medicine for there chickens and there is no law who can prevent it to use it. I mean why not take all the tylosin and baytrills from the market and the peolpe will force to kill there poultry for a free MG enviroment in this case it is not. I mean MG infected birds and that was proven, have lived its whole life without any sickness. I mean how would you know Your flock is infected or not. If you ask me you will never know till you see the symtoms. So my advise treat the bird thirst and and cull if necesary poultry is exspensive even if you started over again what is the guarentee the birds your buy is not MG free, thats your word against the buyer, but I think if I work a percentage out how many free MG birs is outside there? there result is going be shocking. So I don"t say buy every where birds, a person must seek out the most healthy birds. But the whole thing making sense to me, specialy day old broiler chickens, you can buy them anywhere, but how many did die in the first week if there is thousands? I will say many I did work on a broiler farm and I see it with my own eyes and they die due to illness not due to heat or something else even if the chickens is vacine before delivery.

please note. I does not put the Quote to debate please make your own conclusion and do some research, i done mine

thank

Yeah right now my dad and i are debating culling our whole flock ( 64 birds ... 8 roosters the rest hens ) and starting clean next year sanitizing everything...

we have put a good sum of money into them this year and with the problems we have now we think we should get rid of everyone and start fresh..
this is the first time having birds sick it sucks...

we are defiantly thinking that if my yellow band birds ( mount healthy girls ) don't lay in the next 2 weeks they are getting culled cause we aren't going to pay for the feed if they don't give back... at least that's what my dad says..

my mom is 100% anti chicken now she liked when we only had 6 and they all had names ...

 

[De Wet]

Yeah right now my dad and i are debating culling our whole flock ( 64 birds ... 8 roosters the rest hens ) and starting clean next year sanitizing everything...

we have put a good sum of money into them this year and with the problems we have now we think we should get rid of everyone and start fresh..
this is the first time having birds sick it sucks...

we are defiantly thinking that if my yellow band birds ( mount healthy girls ) don't lay in the next 2 weeks they are getting culled cause we aren't going to pay for the feed if they don't give back... at least that's what my dad says..

my mom is 100% anti chicken now she liked when we only had 6 and they all had names ...

I agree you system looks bad and the end of day it is better to start over but what I mean was if some one has one bird and have symtoms and there is other birds every body going in a flat spin and come up with culling everything what I was meaning was how will we know we buy a MG free stock, I mean you want to start over (which is maybe the best at the end of the day) but what guarantee have you the next flock will be clean. So may sugestion is, we as breeders must have a quarantine process in place at our home for a few days and treat them with vaccine or focbac plus t water solutions which contains tylocin, then you will know you have healthy birds. But I learn my lesson too the best is I think someone mention it somewhere to buy eggs and incubate it. I agree totally with that I atend to do it so from now on except you now the breeder and trust him. Many will disagree with me with no banning on MG medicine the changes is good that all poultry in the future(not so far away) will have a 100% infected rate, you can figured out by yourself will a breeding company if there break out a MG desease and 5000-10000 chickens are infected they will take the lost to cull everything they will rather treat them with cheap medicine because there is no law which prevented them to do it and you buy the chickens. All what we can do treat them by the best so they can develop beter anti bodies but as I say there will be no more MG free flocks in the future. The question, will you never keep chickens or try to treat them with the best.

Remember humans also get colds which also have no cure but we have anti bots which can treat the secondary infection which make us better but next year you will get again a cold which only be treated and so on but humans does not get culled because of cold they just get quarintine till they feel better.

If your sanitation program is correct in which we must work very hard you will have no problem even you buy infected birds.

 

[Singlemaple]

havent had any fatalitys since the last one i posted about.. and everyone seems to be getting better, still some with coughs but thats it..

the Mt healthy girls will be 5 months old at the end of the week and they are half the size as my other 5 month old hens.. im starting to worry about that.

in my small coop i have the birds that are showing signs of being sick and i have been getting an 10-13 eggs a day ( with the 13 girls i have in there ) but in my big coop i am getting 5 eggs a day and i have 40 hens in there... 15 or so are the mt healthy girls and the rest are all 6+ months but under a year.....