Sick dying chicks. **UPDATE 8-7 PICS pg. 19**

[SpottedCrow]

Great to hear that they're doing well!
The pics are awesome!

 

[gumpsgirl]

I haven't updated in a few days, so I thought I would update really quick! The chicks and chickens all finished the Gallamycin on Sat. Everyone seems healthy and normal, except for my 2 Blue Orp. girls. I have let the 18 and 13 wk. olds out to free range again and they are in heaven! Thank heavens I'm not the evil chicken mommy anymore. The babies are 4 wks. old now, if that's possible, and are doing well except for the gorging of the chick starter this morning that made 2 of the cockerels choke.

It figures that is was the cockerels, right?!?!

I did some emergency food removal, took the starter away, and gave them all some starter grit. They all look okay now, so hopefully that is over with! I also did a head count of the 4 wk. olds and I have 15 left. 7 of them are cockerels and 8 are pullets. My one and only Partridge Rock survivor is a pullet!!! I am so happy about that one!

Thanks again to all of you for the wonderful support that you have given me through this whole ordeal. I really truly don't think I could have survived it without all of you.

 

[speckledhen]

Yea, for the partridge rock girl! Crossing fingers that you have no carriers out of all that are left. I know you have till next summer to watch out for that, but still, maybe the only actual carriers have already been culled.

 

[gumpsgirl]

I have been hoping for that as well Cyn. I'm thinking that I have two Blue Orp. girls (my only two) that are going to have to be culled.

They don't show any signs of being ill, except for their eyes. Their eyes have never cleared up. They are still watery looking. I pretty much know in my heart what needs to be done there, but I just am trying to muster the gumption to do it. I keep telling myself that I will get more from you next year, but it still isn't an easy thing to do. They are two sweethearts and I hate that they haven't completely healed. That right there is showing me that they will be carriers, but my blue girls are going to be so hard to part with.

 

[gumpsgirl]

I just wanted to update and let everyone know that I vaccinated 25 of the chicks today. I posted this news on a new post and didn't want to double post it, so here's the link to the other post.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=78004

 

[gumpsgirl]

Dr. Pierson called me this afternoon to check up on the chicks and chickens, which I thought was very nice. We talked for a half and hour or so and he answered a lot of questions and addressed some of my concerns. First off, the birds that I thought were carriers because of their eyes are not necessarily carriers. He said that is a condition that they can get after having an infected eye. So, that was good news! He also told me that I can eat the chickens eggs. The Coryza vaccine is a killed virus so it will not affect the eggs at all! It can drop the production, but a few of my hens just started to lay for the first time yesterday, so I don't really know what their production is! LOL! I do think that I will wait a few weeks before I eat them because the vaccine does have aluminum in it and I try not to feed my family anything with aluminum in it. Dr. Pierson also addressed the difficulty of finding the carriers in my flock and suggested that I just vaccinate everything I bring into my flock, which I was going to do anyways.

All of the chicks and chickens seem to be growing and doing well now! I will vaccinate again the beginning of Sept. Thank you all for all of your kindness, support, and concern through this whole mess. You will never know how much it all has meant to me.

 

[speckledhen]

 

[seminolewind]

It's nice to read about some good news, and a terrible situation that comes to an end. It's good of you to share this whole story because so many people, I think, have learned something here. I would have never thought that much about buying chickens at an auction, but now its a no-no, bigtime. I have a closed group, only added to by eggs hatched, and since they are chicks, they are separated for weeks anyway.
Good luck with your flock. Oh yea, I guess you won't have to cull now, right?

 

[gumpsgirl]

Quote:
The possibility of me having to cull does still exist. I am spending hours everyday around my flock watching and listening to see if they show any signs of being sick. I even thought at one point today that one of my golden girls was sneezing, my heart stopped but then I finally decided it was them scratching on the ground that I heard. Thank heavens! If they get sick at all this next year, then I have to cull. Only the ones that get sick of course because those will be the carriers. Hopefully and with any luck, I won't have to cull many.

 

[Guinea Goonie]

thank you speckled hen for the link to this, so here is a bump up so we all can be reminded of a horrid experience with buying birds and no isolating them.