The Old Folks Home

[perchie.girl]

Quote:

deb

I think it is! It's amazing what one can get from sites like that. I think I found one selling anabolic steroids!

-Kathy

Its nice that meds are defined by latin based names.... I dont know enough to make good use of a site like this.

deb

 

[hennible]

Maybe there was a negative affect to the deworming and the worms aren't passing through or absorbing as protein into the birds system...

 

[casportpony]

Bird had been wormed several weeks ago, so this one was not sick from a die-off.

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

So the owner of the bird brought her into a room that was heated to 80 degrees and started by tubing fluids to get her rehydrated. She also started her on Corid, Baytril and metronidazole. Once hydrated, she started tuning baby bird food. Peafowl are most susceptible to coccidiosis, blackhead and enteritis, so that's what she was treated for. Once the owner had her semi-stabilized she took another fecal to a different vet and this time they found coccidiosis *and* capillary worms, so Safeguard was added to treatment. Unclear if Baytril and metronidazole were actually needed, but in this case they sure didn't hurt. Owner kept tubing and repeating fecals until they were negative. Hen did recover and is now back outside.

-Kathy

Edited to add:
It took over four weeks of round the clock supportive care. Only time will tell if the damage done by capillary worms and coccidia was permanent.

 

[vehve]

I have to admit, at that point the cost of care, both directly and indirectly through time spent, is pretty high for a 200$ bird... more like a 2200$ bird. Don't know if I would be up for that myself. But very nice to hear the bird is doing better.

 

[casportpony]

I have to admit, at that point the cost of care, both directly and indirectly through time spent, is pretty high for a 200$ bird... more like a 2200$ bird. Don't know if I would be up for that myself. But very nice to hear the bird is doing better.

She is probably the most dedicated peafowl owner I have met on BYC. She works from home, so was able to provide the care better than most could do.

-Kathy

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I'm afraid I am one that will treat with no diagnosis, but I usually have a good reason to. Too often delay in treatment, which should include proper supportive care like heat and fluids, will result in death. Those that are raising poultry for food should probably only medicate as directed to by a and should also have necropsies done on deceased birds.

-Kathy

The range of management techniques is amazing to me. I guess it shouldn't though since the purposes one has for their birds are many.

You certainly have a lot of experience and knowledge with drugs and I know many have been very grateful for your extensive posts on the topic.
I've even adopted a couple of your suggestions as a matter of course. That being moving seemingly ill birds to a warm place and getting a baseline weight. The latter is brilliant.
I also love the great dosing information you give. That's invaluable.

That said, I'm probably at the polar opposite end of the spectrum. I'm not saying I won't medicate but for me, it's closer to a last resort but depends on the circumstances.
While I pay very close attention to optimal nutrition. I almost never medicate. My medical case for chickens is almost entirely for wounds. I have only used antibiotics twice. Once was when tetracycline was prescribed for 2 flocks with a clostridial diarrhea. It was a shame to have to throw away those eggs as they had all just started laying.
The other time was injecting 2 birds with Combi-Pen-48 that had been badly chewed up by a raccoon.
So those are the only antibiotics I have on hand.
I have a bottle of Corid and have only used that once for one of the flocks.
In my life, I may have wormed chickens a couple times but I can only remember worming a single rooster and that was a couple years ago.
Originally we raised small batches (25-50) of meat birds and kept a flock of 100 or so leghorns for eggs to augment produce sales. Since in those days, it was more along the lines of a small scale commercial egg farm we husbanded them in a similar way. However they weren't confined to cages but free ranged the orchard adjacent to the hen houses. We replaced them every 3 years or so. Definitely not pets. I don't remember ever medicating.
Since then, I've become more of a breeder. After trying out some 30 breeds, I've settled on one favorite.
I still free range a couple flocks but if penned, I rotate pastures. The pasture is organic, the feed is organic. That gets supplemented with some animal protein, fruit/berries when available and sometimes a vitamin/mineral supplement before collecting eggs for a hatch. The latter is usually in the dead of winter when forage is virtually nonexistent. The animal protein is in the form of fishmeal or some lightly cooked meat. I feed kitchen scraps but with so many birds, most are lucky to get a bite. With scraps, it's just what I eat so no bread or junk food.
They get probiotics from the time they come out of the hatcher. Other than that, they get appropriate sized grit and clean water.
I'm of the school of thought that advocates 'the rigid culling of all snifflers, droopers, feather rufflers, poor eaters and pale-headed birds to ensure they don't reproduce their kind'. A phrase coined by Fred P. Jeffrey, a professor of poultry science.
I rarely try to save a chick unless I'm sure its problem was my fault in some way.
I've almost never had a bird that I considered sick. The worst one turned out to have cancer. I'm glad I resisted the temptation to treat as it would have been futile and prolonged her misery. I've lost 2 birds to egg binding, one to heat and one to being too fat. The rest of that flock immediately went on a diet. I had been careless with feed at the time.


ETA
Most of my experience with birds is either chickens, parrots and a bit with geese and pheasant.

I understand the desire to go to extra measures for extremely valuable birds.
Pet birds notwithstanding, if breeding birds, in the end I feel going to great lengths to save them isn't doing the species/breed/variety any long term benefit. On the contrary, IMO deviating from survival of the fittest reduces vigor.

I was once on a forum, albeit much smaller than this and now defunct, where the moderator and head hen would immediately recommend antibiotics and wormers any time a person would post about a sick bird. It amazed me because, in most cases, neither were warranted.
She said, that was the way her grandmother always did it.

Can someone remind me again why we have resistant bacteria, helminths and protozoa?


In spite of precautions, I lose most of my birds the old fashioned way - predation.

My vet had me sign a waiver that said I would never eat them, but off the record said that they wait 30 days.

-Kathy

I imagine with time, most things will work their way out of the system except heavy metals and things like Teflon.

 

[perchie.girl]

@ChickenCanoe

I belonged to a similar site you described. The list owner was the first one to advize Antibiotics and treatments as if she were a doctor.... made me nervous because she had a devoted following. She was quick to belittle people who had other opinions.

I got out of there pretty quick.

deb

 

[ChickenCanoe]

perhaps it was the same one
was the person from Indiana?

Whenever I would visit, my presence was known by the sound of my jaw hitting the keyboard.

 

[ronott1]

@ChickenCanoe

I belonged to a similar site you described. The list owner was the first one to advize Antibiotics and treatments as if she were a doctor.... made me nervous because she had a devoted following. She was quick to belittle people who had other opinions.

I got out of there pretty quick.

deb

Was that the Orpington owner? I have not seen her around for quite some time now.