Survivers ....

cnterfld21

In the Brooder
7 Years
Jun 4, 2012
67
1
41
Whiteville, North Carolina
A few in my flock had symptoms which resembled MG or something similar back in the September/October 2012. The only symptoms that were visible or audible at the time were sneezing, weezing in my Roo and 1 hen & one that had a bubbly eye issue. I ended up losing the weezing hen near the end of October, the only symptom she ever presented was weezing and she never lost her appetite until the day before death. We gave the one hen that had the eye problem 1 dose of Tylan 50 and applied antibiotic ointment to her eye for 3 days (which was completely shut at the time) and it was pretty much gone. We then found out through some Internet research that it could be MG so we decided to stop treatment on her and wait to see if any other symptoms showed up in the flock or if we would lose any of them. All the symptoms the flock were having seemed to gradually go away within a couple of weeks after the hen died. Some information I forgot was that they were purchased (as 2 week old chicks) around March/April of 2012. They were always kept together and once we put them outside in the coop/pen the only change was using hay as ground covering instead of wood chips. Once outside nothing in there environment ever changed (that we are aware of) except of course for the weather. During the time we have owned them I have attended 1 local chicken auction which was roughly 3 or 4 weeks prior to having any problems. I suspect if it was in fact a MG or other respiratory type related disease that that it where it might have came from. And to prevent possible spread we've never allowed anyone in our pen or coop and not to mention that Fred (our Roo) isn't very friendly at all these days
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. He has anger management problems

My question is: My family is starting to get the itch to start hatching some of our eggs and I am very weary of the possibility that I may be breeding a disease that might possibly be passed to another flock owner. As I said above only one of my flock was ever given any treatment what so ever and that was 1 injection of Tylan 50 and some ointment on her eye and she is my best laying hen
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. And of course we only lost 1 hen. Would the symptoms have simply gone away never to return?? I have been pretty diligent about paying attention to how they sound and look ...etc. Any suggestions???
 
Once a flock has MG, even though the birds are not exhibiting any signs of MG, the survivors will always be carriers of it for the rest of their days. And should the birds become stressed for health reasons or some outside stimuli, they can succumb to the bacteria inside them and again show symptoms.

So your birds will always carry it and so will the grounds they live on. I would recommend your family start with fresh birds on new ground, just to be on the safe side. :)
 
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