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I've been working on this for a month or so with Dr. Herrin, our state vet, Dr. Zinn up in Guthrie (who actually treats chickens! Who knew?), Dr. Bailey from OSU's Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, and Dr. Pruitt with the USDA. Basically the "breeder" I bought my core breeding group of Dominiques from last year sold me a bird that he should have culled. The rooster had watery eyes, and I asked about it and he told me it was no big deal, that the rooster had hay fever. Being a naive moron, who hadn't yet found BYC, I believed him. Turns out that rooster was positive for MG. Now my whole flock is positive and my chicks are dying. None of the other adult birds were sick, but they're apparently carriers. I put the rooster down. We also had a heck of a month for predators last month too. Pair of in season big cats were taking my ducks and big chickens, pair of red-shouldered hawks were getting my chicks, and a pair of black rat snakes were getting all my eggs. I went from two broody muscovies on 29 eggs, to one broody muscovy on 7 viable eggs left out of the bunch, down to only two actually living to hatch. They are in my sunroom right now in a brooder. Um, that's about it. Lost 19 birds last month between illness and different predators. I've closed the flock. I can't decide whether to depopulate all at once, or just by attrition. They're getting ACV in their drinking water to boost their immune system, and they're getting yogurt for the probiotics. I'm not one for grabbing the Duramycin every time or feeding them medicated feed constantly. My philosophy is if they can't live with a good diet, fresh air, sunshine, clean water and all the free range time they can handle, then I don't want to be propping them up. Still, they're my babies, and it's a lot easier to have that hard-nosed stance when it's not starin' me in the face, kwim?
Traci