Rebuilding my Farm

[Wynette]

I understand that many resperitory infections leave the chickens carriers for life, but not all. The infection my chickens had had was treatable, and believe me, I did my reaserch, i know what i had and my birds are not carriers.

Really? What exactly did they have? I'm curious. Thanks.

 

[Wynette]

I had gotten 26 chicks hatch on Easter.
Also, I had brought a swab kit from the the animal clinic for $8.50. It has about 5 to 10 swabs with the culture tubes. The test for each swab is $18.00, so that is a whole lot cheaper than doing the blood test route! Yay!

Hey, Daron - Can you explain how this works? You buy a kit with the swabs in it, you swab (I assume it's like a small Q-tip that you rub against the roof of their mouth?), then put the swab in the culture tube (is it plastic?) and then you mail the tube with swab to....MSU or something? Thanks! If you could post a picture of the kit, that would be great!

 

[speckledhen]

I understand that many resperitory infections leave the chickens carriers for life, but not all. The infection my chickens had had was treatable, and believe me, I did my reaserch, i know what i had and my birds are not carriers.

Unless you had actual laboratory testing and/or know for 100% certain that your birds had either a localized bacterial sinus infection, situational pneumonia or a fungal infection, all others that I'm aware of are carrier diseases. A bacterial sinus infection may occur following a fungal infection, per our state vet.

 

[kuntrygirl]

I had gotten 26 chicks hatch on Easter.

Also, I had brought a swab kit from the the animal clinic for $8.50. It has about 5 to 10 swabs with the culture tubes. The test for each swab is $18.00, so that is a whole lot cheaper than doing the blood test route! Yay!

 

[Farmerboy16]

Quote:
Hey, Daron - Can you explain how this works? You buy a kit with the swabs in it, you swab (I assume it's like a small Q-tip that you rub against the roof of their mouth?), then put the swab in the culture tube (is it plastic?) and then you mail the tube with swab to....MSU or something? Thanks! If you could post a picture of the kit, that would be great!

Yeah, something like that. I emailed the vet again, about how to swab them, so I will have to wait until he responds.

 

[chicken grandma]

Daron,
You are educating a whole lot of people here on BYC!
I am sorry your flock had MG but I really want to thank you for all you are doing in educating all of us. I hope you will post some of this info on the Michigan thread.
God bless you! Nancy

 

[Shamrock4]

I understand that many respiratory infections leave the chickens carriers for life, but not all. The infection my chickens had had was treatable, and believe me, I did my research, i know what i had and my birds are not carriers.

Really? What exactly did they have? I'm curious. Thanks.

They had a fungal infection. I was on vacation, and there was a big storm and my chicken coop flooded (they were roosting so they didn't actually get wet) and the bedding got very gross and wet, and the people that were taking care of all of my animals for me didn't to anything about it, so it got very unhealthy in the coop. I was pretty upset with the people taking care of my animals but thankfully I didn't lose many chickens.

Also, I showed some modern games in the crossroads show last year and I brought home a pair of BBred moderns that I bought from the man who won reserve grand champion of the entire show (I have bought moderns from him before) and about a month into quarantine the hen started to get a purple tongue with a very rotten smell. I asked the breeder, and my vet if they knew what it was and nobody had any idea. I gave her injections of a respiratory antibiotic every day but there was no improvement and her back was all matted together with discharge from her mouth. I thought I had picked up some horrible respiratory disease from the show. Four days after i started giving her injections I was really trying to figure out what was going on with her tongue, because it had turned black and yellow, when I noticed a tiny, tiny fiber wrapped around her tongue. I spent over an hour trying to get the fiber out but with no success. The vet was coming out the next morning for other reasons so I gave up trying to get it out myself and waited for the vet, who took one look at the tongue and chopped it off. The string had been so tight it had cut off circulation and the hen couldn't eat at all so I had been putting liquid food down her throat 3x a day. She has recovered completely (tongueless), and is still a very loud chicken, and I have learned a lesson that I probably wont ever have to use again, but you never know.

I had gotten 26 chicks hatch on Easter.
Also, I had brought a swab kit from the the animal clinic for $8.50. It has about 5 to 10 swabs with the culture tubes. The test for each swab is $18.00, so that is a whole lot cheaper than doing the blood test route! Yay!

Congratulations on your chicks!!!

 

[speckledhen]

Poor hen!! That can happen so easily, too, which is why we are forever picking up strings off the ground here.

 

[Shamrock4]

I always pick up strings in as well but this hen had the tiniest fiber wrapped around her tongue so I would never have seen it on the ground anyway (It was the type that might come off a sweater). If it was bigger I would have noticed it in her mouth earlier too.

I was wondering, in a thread on BYC someones chickens had coryza, and they talked to a vet and the vet said only some remain carriers and you could tell who it was because they would continue to show signs and the ones that werent carriers wouldnt show signs. Then you could cull the ones showing signs untill you were eventually coryza free. The ones that werent carriers were immune to coryza. Is this true? I havent seen anything else that has said that before.

Also I have been reading about using denagard as a preventative for MG, but I am I right in guessing they could still get MG but just not show the signs?

 

[Wickischickies]

I was wondering, in a thread on BYC someones chickens had coryza, and they talked to a vet and the vet said only some remain carriers and you could tell who it was because they would continue to show signs and the ones that werent carriers wouldnt show signs. Then you could cull the ones showing signs untill you were eventually coryza free. The ones that werent carriers were immune to coryza. Is this true? I havent seen anything else that has said that before.

Also I have been reading about using denagard as a preventative for MG, but I am I right in guessing they could still get MG but just not show the signs?

This was shared with me about all the different diseases and bacterias. I hope this answers your question Shamrock. It appears that most chickens illnesses can be treated but not cured (like humans), it leaves them carriers for life. If you look at the attachment it shows how each illness is spread and how quickly it can spread within a flock. I am glad you are asking questions like these qouted above! The safest way to know for sure what a chicken is sick with is to swab test it and send the swab to MSU. It is cheapier to have MSU test a flock then having a vet run tests. They are also more accurate in dignosing illnesses and can explain what the flock has or doesn't have.

I don't think denagard will prevent MG, even the vaccine for MG does not prevent MG completely. Everything used to treat chicken illnesses only treat the symptoms of each illnesses, they do not "cure" the illness. Great questions!


http://www.amerpoultryassn.com/respiratory_disease.htm