Precautions apply (hyperlink)
Parasites are generally not what actually kills the birds. Secondary infections do.
If you scatter feed on the ground and fail to treat the substrate ( wood/old paper feed bag/old hay ashes and pelleted limestone every three months) -altering the PH of the soil- you will have a high probability of contamination of feed stuffs with pathogens and protozoa.
People tend to keep pretty unsanitary conditions for their birds- I grew up with the mindset that livestock were naturally filthy and grew up on a working ranch- visiting scores of other working ranches with family farms at their core all that time. It wasn't until I started working in the zoo field that I discovered how counter productive much of the husbandry practices I'd been conditioned to accept as proper actually were.
In researching this history of agriculture for a documentary I'm currently producing I discovered that prior to WWI there were husbandry practices carried down from the earliest pre-colonial times that prevented against infectious disease and parasite infestation. This was of course necessary because there was no such thing as expendable stock, readily procurable much less affordable medicines or moaning shiftless youth.
Wars claimed the young men that provided much of that detail oriented labour and with the industrialisation of agriculture including ready bought medicines and drugs for livestock, intensively farmed populations of various domestic species- and the end of growing your own forage and grain to feed heirloom livestock and family-we lost a great deal of knowledge.
Migrant workers from vastly different cultural histories with different mindsets and priorities filled the niche of farm labour subsequent- especially during the Vietnam War and subsequent get rich quick 80's.
The practices I grew up with may have been passed down a while but the priorities had shifted to what was feasible and affordable. White washing the barn was no longer something that happened with much frequency and there were many other regiments that just didn't transfer with each generation the way they had when there was an unbroken chain of command - if you will-.
I know from experience how frustrating and fruitless it can be to train a revolving labour force with different ideas about agriculture and husbandry - some of the work will be put off until they know you're showing up- because it seems petty and stupid- so a parasite infestation is lurking together with pathogen build up because they haven't done what's been on the work docket- until that last minute.
That's just the nature of farming these days. That said, peafowl aviculture shouldn't be anything akin to turkey farming but it's become so similar that one has to take the precautions suggested by Deerman.
Dollars to donuts at least some your stock was raised in a giant run on sour soil soaked in years of urea and fecal matter. The birds will be shielded from sticky zones with plywood that is likewise soaked. There are decaying feathers sewn into the fence line and indigestible vegetable parts and such that serve as behavioral enrichment- though contaminated in that soil. This is just a fact of poultry farming.
When you rear hundreds of birds - with a dozen or more per enclosure- more so during the non-breeding season- when you run hundreds of chicks together- you're producing a disease vector.
Those birds are then carrying their pathogens and protozoan colonies with them.
This is no dig- it's just fact. The same thing is going on as wild waterfowl fly from some big waste water pond and settle into my lake- and they are picking up whatever my captive waterfowl are swimming in and taking it further. I wouldn't eat off the floor of any of my bird enclosures and I'm describing any one of my own poultry yards. Don't read this and take it as an insult. I'm stating facts as I see them and as I've experienced them over a thirty + year obsession with animal husbandry.
When your birds - any of your birds- not just peafowl- have come from big collections- and were sent as adults- you are obliged to worm at least two or three times a year. But- please realise that there are side effects with any and all drugs- including problems that mimic those that one is attempting to treat. The link I've provided -to a website belonging to a country doctor of people and animals is a very good one. She's taken the considerable time and energy to write out in plain English what some of the problems that arise with even commonly used drugs are- and many are very surprising.
Few people realise that certain wormers are used to prevent birds from breeding by negatively effecting the hatch rate. Did you know how toxic ivomectin actually is? Do you know how little is actually needed and what the effects can be if not administered correctly? Do you know what the right dose for your bird actually is? Anyone that claims they've never had a problem should also be able to present data confirming that assertion. If you're sending birds out a dozen at a time there's loads of data ripe for collection. If your regiment is perfected write it out to the last (.) ... It's necessary. No one wants to treat their kids or elderly parents without all the facts and sometimes a few opinions from a few different sources. The same should stand in animal husbandry and it certainly does in the fields of horse and llama rearing, exotic wildlife husbandry- any animal worth too much to lose. When you start dealing with poultry- even a precursory search will reveal how little energy the veterinary field wants you to waste on your poultry. The second recommendation is cull and cull heavily- entirely generally.
This post isn't intended as a polemic against worming or treating birds for infectious disease- quite the contrary- but remember. If you are treating a bird for parasites you are introducing a toxic chemical into their blood system. Anything that negatively effects gut flora or even temporarily compromises their immune function should only be used with caution. And since animals succumb to their secondary infections, you've only reached half way after worming them. You must treat that secondary infection, even if it doesn't seem to be present. Using an antibiotic is rarely the answer either unless you know precisely, no- Exactly what you are treating or you are contributing to the greater problem of super bugs- disease completely resistant to antibiotics. Unless you have to use an antibiotic don't use one!
After treating birds for parasites, even when doing so on a cycle- one that is written in big bold letters on the barn calendar and highlighted in your egg log- you've got to help bolster their immune systems.
This means pulling all the maintenance feed for a few days and replacing with healthy custard and fruit-I've outlined above. You do this for the same reasons you treat yourself a bit differently before during and after treatment with a toxic chemical... And most importantly, you've simply got to treat the substrate of your enclosures every two to four months.
Burn those paper feed bags, old hay and clean out your wood stoves. This wood ash is going to help alter the PH of the ground your birds are walking around in. This is how you prevent against staph and sinusitis and a host of other difficult if not impossible to treat maladies. To further alter the PH go in and scatter pelleted limestone on all the moist spots - under perches- where moisture accumulates- and always keep some DE on hand for corners and hard to clean spots- and especially for under perches- not much is needed- put it in a salt shaker- apply like you're salting a steak,
I'll reiterate again.
Bolstering the immune function is absolutely critical.
Preventing contamination of feedstuffs and plumage is likewise paramount.
It's not a life or death drama I'm going on about- but lackadaisical, haphazard administration of drugs and chemicals is not a sound method or ethical animal husbandry. It's also not sustainable. Drugs are expensive and so are livestock. For peace of mind, educate yourself and remember what Benjamin Franklin advised.
"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
Parasites are generally not what actually kills the birds. Secondary infections do.
If you scatter feed on the ground and fail to treat the substrate ( wood/old paper feed bag/old hay ashes and pelleted limestone every three months) -altering the PH of the soil- you will have a high probability of contamination of feed stuffs with pathogens and protozoa.
People tend to keep pretty unsanitary conditions for their birds- I grew up with the mindset that livestock were naturally filthy and grew up on a working ranch- visiting scores of other working ranches with family farms at their core all that time. It wasn't until I started working in the zoo field that I discovered how counter productive much of the husbandry practices I'd been conditioned to accept as proper actually were.
In researching this history of agriculture for a documentary I'm currently producing I discovered that prior to WWI there were husbandry practices carried down from the earliest pre-colonial times that prevented against infectious disease and parasite infestation. This was of course necessary because there was no such thing as expendable stock, readily procurable much less affordable medicines or moaning shiftless youth.
Wars claimed the young men that provided much of that detail oriented labour and with the industrialisation of agriculture including ready bought medicines and drugs for livestock, intensively farmed populations of various domestic species- and the end of growing your own forage and grain to feed heirloom livestock and family-we lost a great deal of knowledge.
Migrant workers from vastly different cultural histories with different mindsets and priorities filled the niche of farm labour subsequent- especially during the Vietnam War and subsequent get rich quick 80's.
The practices I grew up with may have been passed down a while but the priorities had shifted to what was feasible and affordable. White washing the barn was no longer something that happened with much frequency and there were many other regiments that just didn't transfer with each generation the way they had when there was an unbroken chain of command - if you will-.
I know from experience how frustrating and fruitless it can be to train a revolving labour force with different ideas about agriculture and husbandry - some of the work will be put off until they know you're showing up- because it seems petty and stupid- so a parasite infestation is lurking together with pathogen build up because they haven't done what's been on the work docket- until that last minute.
That's just the nature of farming these days. That said, peafowl aviculture shouldn't be anything akin to turkey farming but it's become so similar that one has to take the precautions suggested by Deerman.
Dollars to donuts at least some your stock was raised in a giant run on sour soil soaked in years of urea and fecal matter. The birds will be shielded from sticky zones with plywood that is likewise soaked. There are decaying feathers sewn into the fence line and indigestible vegetable parts and such that serve as behavioral enrichment- though contaminated in that soil. This is just a fact of poultry farming.
When you rear hundreds of birds - with a dozen or more per enclosure- more so during the non-breeding season- when you run hundreds of chicks together- you're producing a disease vector.
Those birds are then carrying their pathogens and protozoan colonies with them.
This is no dig- it's just fact. The same thing is going on as wild waterfowl fly from some big waste water pond and settle into my lake- and they are picking up whatever my captive waterfowl are swimming in and taking it further. I wouldn't eat off the floor of any of my bird enclosures and I'm describing any one of my own poultry yards. Don't read this and take it as an insult. I'm stating facts as I see them and as I've experienced them over a thirty + year obsession with animal husbandry.
When your birds - any of your birds- not just peafowl- have come from big collections- and were sent as adults- you are obliged to worm at least two or three times a year. But- please realise that there are side effects with any and all drugs- including problems that mimic those that one is attempting to treat. The link I've provided -to a website belonging to a country doctor of people and animals is a very good one. She's taken the considerable time and energy to write out in plain English what some of the problems that arise with even commonly used drugs are- and many are very surprising.
Few people realise that certain wormers are used to prevent birds from breeding by negatively effecting the hatch rate. Did you know how toxic ivomectin actually is? Do you know how little is actually needed and what the effects can be if not administered correctly? Do you know what the right dose for your bird actually is? Anyone that claims they've never had a problem should also be able to present data confirming that assertion. If you're sending birds out a dozen at a time there's loads of data ripe for collection. If your regiment is perfected write it out to the last (.) ... It's necessary. No one wants to treat their kids or elderly parents without all the facts and sometimes a few opinions from a few different sources. The same should stand in animal husbandry and it certainly does in the fields of horse and llama rearing, exotic wildlife husbandry- any animal worth too much to lose. When you start dealing with poultry- even a precursory search will reveal how little energy the veterinary field wants you to waste on your poultry. The second recommendation is cull and cull heavily- entirely generally.
This post isn't intended as a polemic against worming or treating birds for infectious disease- quite the contrary- but remember. If you are treating a bird for parasites you are introducing a toxic chemical into their blood system. Anything that negatively effects gut flora or even temporarily compromises their immune function should only be used with caution. And since animals succumb to their secondary infections, you've only reached half way after worming them. You must treat that secondary infection, even if it doesn't seem to be present. Using an antibiotic is rarely the answer either unless you know precisely, no- Exactly what you are treating or you are contributing to the greater problem of super bugs- disease completely resistant to antibiotics. Unless you have to use an antibiotic don't use one!
After treating birds for parasites, even when doing so on a cycle- one that is written in big bold letters on the barn calendar and highlighted in your egg log- you've got to help bolster their immune systems.
This means pulling all the maintenance feed for a few days and replacing with healthy custard and fruit-I've outlined above. You do this for the same reasons you treat yourself a bit differently before during and after treatment with a toxic chemical... And most importantly, you've simply got to treat the substrate of your enclosures every two to four months.
Burn those paper feed bags, old hay and clean out your wood stoves. This wood ash is going to help alter the PH of the ground your birds are walking around in. This is how you prevent against staph and sinusitis and a host of other difficult if not impossible to treat maladies. To further alter the PH go in and scatter pelleted limestone on all the moist spots - under perches- where moisture accumulates- and always keep some DE on hand for corners and hard to clean spots- and especially for under perches- not much is needed- put it in a salt shaker- apply like you're salting a steak,
I'll reiterate again.
Bolstering the immune function is absolutely critical.
Preventing contamination of feedstuffs and plumage is likewise paramount.
It's not a life or death drama I'm going on about- but lackadaisical, haphazard administration of drugs and chemicals is not a sound method or ethical animal husbandry. It's also not sustainable. Drugs are expensive and so are livestock. For peace of mind, educate yourself and remember what Benjamin Franklin advised.
"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
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