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- #191
If you could determine that it was truly just pneumonia, that would be fine, but most folks just don't know what their birds have. Therein lies the rub.
Recently a friend had two youngsters get drenched to the bone in a sudden rainstorm. They were in a tractor and couldn't get out of the rain and she was driving home like a maniac, realizing this, but they did get completely soaked. The one that was showing symptoms, sneezing and shivering, immediately was put under a heat lamp and recovered quickly. The other didn't show symptoms till a couple days later so he didn't get the warming treatment immediately. He developed what we determined was most likely pneumonia since neither of the birds had any symptoms of any kind previous to their near drowning. We decided to start him on antibiotics as you would anyone with pneumonia and he recovered quickly, but we were 99% certain that it was a direct result of his soaking, not anything contagious. Subsequently, the vet confirmed what we had already decided. In that case, I was confident in recommending antibiotics, but that was one certain case with easily identified cause. If there had been reason to believe otherwise, she would have culled them both, no question about that.
Remember, these rules are the way I run MY flock. You do what you can live with, but under no circumstances, sell birds you know have had a viral or bacterial contagious respiratory illness to someone else without full disclosure. Never be the cause of someone else's pain if you can help it! If you want to treat Coryza, CRD, whatever, and keep a closed flock, that's your business.
I've been lambasted over and over for being too harsh, but these are not human children, not mammals, though they may seem like your very own babies sometimes. These are avian species and diseases affect them differently than mammals.
Recently a friend had two youngsters get drenched to the bone in a sudden rainstorm. They were in a tractor and couldn't get out of the rain and she was driving home like a maniac, realizing this, but they did get completely soaked. The one that was showing symptoms, sneezing and shivering, immediately was put under a heat lamp and recovered quickly. The other didn't show symptoms till a couple days later so he didn't get the warming treatment immediately. He developed what we determined was most likely pneumonia since neither of the birds had any symptoms of any kind previous to their near drowning. We decided to start him on antibiotics as you would anyone with pneumonia and he recovered quickly, but we were 99% certain that it was a direct result of his soaking, not anything contagious. Subsequently, the vet confirmed what we had already decided. In that case, I was confident in recommending antibiotics, but that was one certain case with easily identified cause. If there had been reason to believe otherwise, she would have culled them both, no question about that.
Remember, these rules are the way I run MY flock. You do what you can live with, but under no circumstances, sell birds you know have had a viral or bacterial contagious respiratory illness to someone else without full disclosure. Never be the cause of someone else's pain if you can help it! If you want to treat Coryza, CRD, whatever, and keep a closed flock, that's your business.
I've been lambasted over and over for being too harsh, but these are not human children, not mammals, though they may seem like your very own babies sometimes. These are avian species and diseases affect them differently than mammals.
