need some help, please read carefully

[1muttsfan]

You would not be able to diagnose a simple URT infection from a chronic infection with something like MG from just an examination. The fact that your birds are still sick indicates something more serious may be going on. You may be able to submit respiratory swabs instead, I would contact A&M for advice.

 

[TherryChicken]

You would not be able to diagnose a simple URT infection from a chronic infection with something like MG from just an examination.  The fact that your birds are still sick indicates something more serious may be going on.  You may be able to submit respiratory swabs instead, I would contact A&M for advice.

ive had my birds tested for mg and ai and they were free.. if things dont get better, then im not sure what I will do, but I have little to no money at all to affored things.

 

[TherryChicken]

Oh and the people who come out to test the flock for free do not test ducks. So I will still be stuck with whats going on with my ducks

 

[chooks4life]

so the birds like garlic and will just eat it? My ducks dont eat alot surprisingly.

Mine love it but chickens and other poultry and animals are usually cautious about any new foods, so it can be hard for some people to introduce it to the diet. I've always just added fresh, raw, minced garlic to the soaked grain, never had a single bird reject it. Dried granulated garlic is also good, usually, but for disease fresh and raw is unbeatable.

 

[chooks4life]

If both your chickens and ducks are sick I would expect the land is likely sick, I'm not anything more than vaguely familiar with ducks but I do know they're physiologically quite different to chooks or land fowl, and I don't know how many diseases chooks and ducks share... But no matter the disease, making sure the land is healthy is always important to overall health.

I'd use calcium carbonate (lime) to sprinkle over all the ground they walk on. That form of lime won't burn them but it will help the land's health a lot. Pathogen overload is a common problem with overstocked land or any land where animals live nonstop and have done for a long time, even if they're only small numbers. Compacted and feces-overburdened ground in coops and around them is anaerobic which is ideal for most pathogens.

Ducks I expect would use other plants in the wild state for their own medicinal needs than garlic, but I don't know what plants specifically those are; many reeds, lilies etc have medicinal properties though. Also, primitive chooks would of course have used other herbs, all wild animals tend to, but who knows what herbs Junglefowl use? Garlic will do a great job, and it's even possible they can no longer tolerate what their ancestors would have in terms of native plants, since they've developed some dietary alterations (i.e. tolerance for legumes etc) under thousands of years of domesticity and adaptation to foreign lands.

If multiple diverse species are ill, the food, water, soil, coops, etc all must come under inspection. Unfortunately food, land etc is often far more polluted than we truly want to know. Sometimes we've been horrified by what we've found in soil around sheds, water tanks, dams, etc, on numerous places we've lived on.

Best wishes.

 

[subhanalah]

Do you keep the Ducks and chickens in the same coop? Is it an open coop or enclosed?

It sounds like there's a management problem, perhaps?

 

[TherryChicken]

Mine love it but chickens and other poultry and animals are usually cautious about any new foods, so it can be hard for some people to introduce it to the diet. I've always just added fresh, raw, minced garlic to the soaked grain, never had a single bird reject it. Dried granulated garlic is also good, usually, but for disease fresh and raw is unbeatable.

yeah were crushing up cloves and mixing it into their feed

 

[TherryChicken]

Do you keep the Ducks and chickens in the same coop? Is it an open coop or enclosed?

It sounds like there's a management problem, perhaps?

no I dont Nd the coop is open

 

[TherryChicken]

If both your chickens and ducks are sick I would expect the land is likely sick, I'm not anything more than vaguely familiar with ducks but I do know they're physiologically quite different to chooks or land fowl, and I don't know how many diseases chooks and ducks share... But no matter the disease, making sure the land is healthy is always important to overall health.

I'd use calcium carbonate (lime) to sprinkle over all the ground they walk on. That form of lime won't burn them but it will help the land's health a lot. Pathogen overload is a common problem with overstocked land or any land where animals live nonstop and have done for a long time, even if they're only small numbers. Compacted and feces-overburdened ground in coops and around them is anaerobic which is ideal for most pathogens.

Ducks I expect would use other plants in the wild state for their own medicinal needs than garlic, but I don't know what plants specifically those are; many reeds, lilies etc have medicinal properties though. Also, primitive chooks would of course have used other herbs, all wild animals tend to, but who knows what herbs Junglefowl use? Garlic will do a great job, and it's even possible they can no longer tolerate what their ancestors would have in terms of native plants, since they've developed some dietary alterations (i.e. tolerance for legumes etc) under thousands of years of domesticity and adaptation to foreign lands.

If multiple diverse species are ill, the food, water, soil, coops, etc all must come under inspection. Unfortunately food, land etc is often far more polluted than we truly want to know. Sometimes we've been horrified by what we've found in soil around sheds, water tanks, dams, etc, on numerous places we've lived on.

Best wishes.

the lime wont hurt the birds? Wont they eat it from off the ground?

 

[chooks4life]

the lime wont hurt the birds? Wont they eat it from off the ground?

The type of lime I referred to (calcium carbonate) is sold both for fixing clay soils and adding to livestock feed for calcium.

Dolomite is arguably better for the latter since it also contains magnesium in the correct ratio to the calcium, and both belong together and are utilized in conjunction with one another within the body, but the right lime is indeed safe for them to eat and the label will specify that it's the sort you can add to their feed. I wouldn't offhand do that with poultry though without knowing the right ratio because they can get all the calcium they need easily from other sources i.e. oystershell, eggshells, some green plants, etc. Too much calcium is of course harmful just like pretty much any other nutrient. Too little or too much in the diet is bad. However, you're just adding it to the soil, sprinkling it over the top, unless you make them wade through a sea of it there's almost no risk of them hurting themselves with it. They will inhale some, get some in their eyes, take some in orally etc if they dustbath in it or eat on the ground, and it won't hurt them, as long as you use the right lime.

Each 'lime' has a specific name, and some can be very harmful. I don't use those. The one I referred to is safe.

Best wishes.