Vaccinate or not to vaccinate...

[gritsar]

Quote:
IMO, none and/or same advice I gave kuntrygirl, call and ask.

I don't vaccinate and no Steve, it isn't because I trust in God to provide my chickens with protection. It's a decision I made after gathering all the facts I could about the prevalent chicken diseases in my area. Turns out being surrounded by commercial chicken houses has its advantages. Those birds are vaccinated for everything under the sun and checked often for disease.

The only "medicines" I give my chickens is to worm them once a year. Also, if I have brooder raised chicks I give them medicated starter feed. If the broody hen is raising chicks I don't feed the chicks medicated. The broody raised chicks are gradually exposed to coccidia via the adult birds droppings. What you do for your flock(s) really needs to be tailored to your area.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Quote:
Call your local agricultural extension agent. Their phone number is usually listed in the government section of your phone book. Ask them what chicken diseases are prevalent in your area. Specifically ask about marek's. That should help you make the decision to vaccinate or not.

Edited for spelling.

Well, I made the call and it was a waste of time. No one knows nothing.

Thanks for the information though.

 

[Ariel301]

I started out on the "no vaccinations" method, not because I believe vaccines are evil, but because I had an attitude of "Oh it won't happen here. I take good care of my animals and don't expose them to disease." Well, I changed my mind quick after spending six hours holding a baby goat while she died a terrible, slow and painful death from tetanus and there was nothing I could do to save her or really even to ease her pain (other than put her to sleep, which I was planning but I was unable to get her to a vet before she finally died on her own). A death I could have prevented easily with just a cheap little shot. Personally, after living through that, I don't understand how people can be willing to risk letting their animals (or children!) suffer something that horrible. I have yet to see anything convincing as evidence that vaccines are very harmful. The research and "proof" on both sides has been equally skewed; the people funding the study get the results they pay for, so you've got to look at who is behind the study and what they stand to gain/lose from the results. Now, if you have a known reaction to a vaccine going on, then that individual should probably not get the vaccine. (unless the risk of getting the disease is greater than the risk of the reaction) To me, the small risk is worth the benefits of vaccinating my livestock and myself. Now I won't vaccinate excessively for every single little thing because it's a waste of money and there are side effects to excessive vaccination, especially in cats--I don't get flu shots because the flu isn't a big deal, I am not going to die from that, just be uncomfortable for a few days; and I don't vaccinate my indoor cats for diseases that are only transmitted through breeding (they're spayed) or contact with wildlife/stray animals--but I do vaccinate for things like Marek's in poultry and tetanus/rabies/CL/enterotoxemia/chlamydial abortion in my goats and sheep because they are at risk for those things just by being alive/outdoors/not in a closed herd/taken to shows, and all of those are serious conditions that are fatal or extremely painful or expensive and difficult to treat and manage. I also deworm my livestock as needed, and treat them with medications like antibiotics when they are sick. This makes me, according to the USDA's regulations, not organic. But I see some of those regulations as promoting cruelty/neglect. If I were certified organic, I could not give medicine to a sick animal. I'm not ok with that. Now, I don't use un-necessary medication like adding antibiotics to drinking water when my animals are not sick, or medicated chicken feed. (I do feed baby goats a medication to prevent coccidiosis because it came into the property with my original herd and has become a serious health problem for my kids even with the best cleaning I can do; it's in the soil. So this is sort of like vaccinating in my mind, I do it because the alternative is much worse.) I don't deworm if they don't need it. And I try to use natural treatments as much as I can, but sometimes they are just not enough/not available.

That's my way of doing things. Everyone has to decide for themselves though, you've got the right to choose how to care for your animals.

 

[Pele]

There is a LOT of misinformation out there about vaccinations that leads a lot of people to go through suffering (both of themselves and their animals) needlessly.

Myth 1: Vaccinations are a chemical/drug that arn't good for you.
Truth: Vaccinations are NOT a chemical, nor a drug. There are several different approaches to acheiving it, but all they are is a crippled or dead form of the disease in a saline solution. It's literally just a syringe full of dead viruses (viri).

Myth 2: Vaccinations are non-organic and unnatural
Truth: Vaccinations are utilizing some of the most natural processes in your body in order to prepare it for invasion. You have cells in your bloodstream called VirginB cells. These are an early warning system designed to detect disease, and produce anti-bodies to defend your body. By introducing dead virus/bacteria cells to these B-cells, you are causing your body to have a natural response, and to raise defenses against that disease. Your OWN natural defenses. No weird synthetic compounds, just white blood-cells that got an early warning, Paul Revere style.

Myth 3: Vaccinations cause Down's Syndrome, and other diseases.
Truth: There have been many studies that have shown that the doctor who claimed that vaccines caused Down's Syndrome was just plain lying in order to get media attention/grants. He has since been found out, discredited, and is now a laughingstock. I personally feel that he's just plain evil, because of all the animals and children he has personally caused to be unneccesarily at risk, but that's just a personal opinion. The ONLY bad reactions you and animals can experience are your own immuno response, or an allergic response to the medium that was used to culture the disease in the lab before it was killed. In many cases, egg-cells are used, which can cause allergic reactions in some people. But again, we are talking about cells from a natural source..... and a source dear to this forum's heart: chickens. If you don't have an egg allergy, or an immuno disease already, you won't be harmed in the slightest.

So the moral is: even if you are trying to be as organic as possible, vaccines fit very well into your health plans for your animals. You are just using the animal's natural ability to defend itself. No weird or crazy genetic manipulation, no Dr. Frankenstein chemicals, just introducing dead virus/bacteria cells to produce resistant white blood cells. That's it. You can't get more organic than that, and in fact, if you try to medically cure a sick unvaccinated animal, you're using more chemicals and unnatural interventions than a simple vaccine involves. After all, antibiotics arn't something you can find naturally occuring in an animal's body.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Call your local agricultural extension agent. Their phone number is usually listed in the government section of your phone book. Ask them what chicken diseases are prevalent in your area. Specifically ask about marek's. That should help you make the decision to vaccinate or not.

Edited for spelling.

Well, I made the call and it was a waste of time. No one knows nothing.

Thanks for the information though.

How lame those people are!

Okay, got a university with an ag. program near you? LSU, perhaps?

 

[dolly85]

I've never had my chicks vaccinated. I have a small flock and rarely get birds from a breeder, usually they are hatched here or shipped from the hatchery. I've never had a problem with chickens getting ill and I've had them for many years.