Urgent Reminder-PLEASE Quarantine Newly Acquired Birds!

[speckledhen]

Molting birds lose their butt feathers and are frequently bare down there for awhile. The skin may even look chapped, but it's not necessarily lice/mites.

 

[speckledhen]

Received a distressing PM from a member this morning. Someone who has current illness running through his flock (no idea who) is still selling chicks and hatching eggs, in spite of the fact that some diseases, most commonly CRD, can be passed through the egg to the chicks. I am pleading with our members--please, please don't be the cause of heartache in someone else's flock! Close your flock, no birds in or out of it from anywhere, until you can determine the illness (and don't just guess, either). Brushing it off as a possibility that you will infect someone else's flock with whatever yours has is, to me, unethical and uncaring. If you get nothing else from anything I've ever said here on BYC, please take this to heart! Think about how you'd feel if someone did that to you.

Please, don't take a chance with someone else's flock. Learn about the most common chicken diseases and have your state poultry lab's phone number ready, just in case.

 

[Wynette]

Quote:
Excellent reminder, Cyn; SUPER DITTO!!!

 

[ranchhand]

Yes. Better to not bring in birds at all, but if you feel you must, quarantine!

 

[M To The Maxx]

I never saw this thread before but thank you for making one.

 

[ranchhand]

I think we need to bring this back up again, I am seeing a lot of folks buying started birds and having health issues!

Be careful, ALWAYS quarantine!

 

[dawg53]

Quote:
x2 Agreed!

 

[speckledhen]

Thanks, Sally. Yes, this is the BIG bird buying season, so please, PLEASE quarantine! It's not perfect, but it's the least you can do to keep your flock safe, other than not buying birds at all.

 

[ranchhand]

As an example:

7 weeks ago, I got some new adult birds, which is a rule violation for me. Strict quarantine, almost the whole 9 yards. (there pen was closer to my flock than I had planned)
That was February 25th. All seemed to be going well; happy, healthy looking and glossy feathers. Eating well, lively 5 hens and 1 rooster. April 3rd, the rooster died overnight. No idea why. Hens were fine. I buried the rooster and kept the hens in quarantine another 2 weeks. I just yesterday let them out to range a bit with the main flock, then back to their separate pen/coop.

I am still VERY nervous about the health issues- there has been no sneezing, head shaking, lice or mites. But I am watching them all very carefully, because a gorgeous roo just suddenly died for no apparent reason.

The point is, even a 30 day quarantine may not be enough, but it's better than none at all. I had to think long and hard about getting those adult birds, only did it because they are very hard to find. I even discussed it with speckledhen, because it's a MAJOR violation of keeping a closed flock.

It still comes down to do as I say, not as I did.

(uhm, yeah Cyn, Elwood just up and died)

 

[Desert Rooster]

Sometimes i read posts saying that "We just got new birds, how do we introduce them to our existing flock? " .
I always tell them to Quarantine, and i direct them to this post.