Sick Chickens

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QueenMisha said:
Welcome to BYC! It's great to have you.

How close was she to the sick chickens? If she was very close, I wouldn't recommend taking her home. If she was a reasonable distance away, take her home but do a long and thorough quaratine.
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Quarantine won't help. If the chicken was exposed at all and didn't get sick it would be a carrier for the rest of it's life.
 
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spoikey said:
Quarantine won't help. If the chicken was exposed at all and didn't get sick it would be a carrier for the rest of it's life.
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I'd call that incorrect. A. If the bird was exposed, there's a good likliehood it will show symptoms in the early stages of infection (which can vary from 3 days-3 weeks depending on the disease). That's the point of quarantine. In most cases, infection due to an asymptomatic carrier is the result of a bird which was infected a long time ago and recovered from initial symptoms B. There are tests for most infectious diseases. If there was still doubt at the end of a long quarantine that the bird may have been infected, it could easily be tested. It costs around $18 to get, for example, a Mycoplasma test around here, which, emotional value aside, is far less than the cost of raising a replacement bird to maturity and so monetarily well worth it. C. Not all birds become carriers. The vast majority that do, show symptoms. The only birds I've seen that came into contact with an infectious disease and didn't show symptoms were the birds so immune that they never even got the disease, much less carried or spread it.
 
QueenMisha said:
I'd call that incorrect. A. If the bird was exposed, there's a good likliehood it will show symptoms in the early stages of infection (which can vary from 3 days-3 weeks depending on the disease). That's the point of quarantine. In most cases, infection due to an asymptomatic carrier is the result of a bird which was infected a long time ago and recovered from initial symptoms B. There are tests for most infectious diseases. If there was still doubt at the end of a long quarantine that the bird may have been infected, it could easily be tested. It costs around $18 to get, for example, a Mycoplasma test around here, which, emotional value aside, is far less than the cost of raising a replacement bird to maturity and so monetarily well worth it. C. Not all birds become carriers. The vast majority that do, show symptoms. The only birds I've seen that came into contact with an infectious disease and didn't show symptoms were the birds so immune that they never even got the disease, much less carried or spread it.
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Read the article. Information about that particular disease is written there.
 
drumstick diva said:
What a heart breaking decision to make.
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Yah, What was supposed to be a great experience has become an absolute tragedy! She sat outside with her bird literally all day today, singing to it, cuddling it, praying over her. Just going to have to try to focus on the things we learned I suppose..... And praying for a miracle as she is quarantined!!!!
 
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She was probably 8' from them for 4 nights. There was another row of chickens between the sick birds and ours. We do have her quarantined and several hundred feet away from our other few birds. Interesting note is that all the "sick" birds are all from 1 owner! I don't buy for a second that the owner didn't know she had sick birds in her flock-shame on her!!!
 
spoikey said:
Read the article. Information about that particular disease is written there.
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I've read all the articles - mainly because I've had several years of experience maintaining an MS-MG positive flock. Articles are helpful but nothing beats first-hand experience of diseased flock management and advice from an avian vet.
 
PreciousFeather said:
She was probably 8' from them for 4 nights. There was another row of chickens between the sick birds and ours. We do have her quarantined and several hundred feet away from our other few birds. Interesting note is that all the "sick" birds are all from 1 owner! I don't buy for a second that the owner didn't know she had sick birds in her flock-shame on her!!!
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I wouldn't say that's close enough that infection is LIKELY but definitely close enough to be worried and be cautious. If you can I'd STRONGLY recommend using a canary in with her... pick the bird from your flock you like the least and place it in with her after she's been in quarantine and appeared healthy for at least 3 weeks. That allows an extra test to prove that she did or did not contract the disease, as the chances of two unrelated birds contracting a disease and never showing symptoms are very, very low.

Ugh... people like that really irritate me. If you get a disease in your flock and you want to breed and show, cull the birds are start over. It's that simple. I'll never understand idiots who knowingly sell and show sick birds...
 

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