Very sick respiratoray chickens, please advise

[Eric R]

If my neighbor has a flock he chooses to maintain with antibiotics, vaccinations, medication and what not, covers his pen all around so our flocks never even look at each other yet a wild bird drinks from my flock's waters then his flock's and poof now his birds are sick with what my flock no longer suffers from yet are carriers of. He put alot of work and effort in raising his flock as he wants. But I have taken losses, treated birds and culled if necessary and all told have also put in alot of effort to get my flock just like I want. Am I the jerk or did I just pick the better way to raise my flock? I mean even if another person's flock didn't infect a flock wouldn't a wild bird eventually? After all, they are already resistant. If anything haven't I had to suffer losses, culled etc BECAUSE others have tried to undo the natural order of things by breeding with vaccines, medications etc?

 

[calichicken75]

I wasn't trying to sound preachy or harsh with my earlier comment, either. But folks who have these respiratory problems in birds, if they are a viral infection an cannot be treated with an antibiotic are a huge biosecurity risk. Building an immune resistant flock is one avenue to take, which I actually commend. But not if you have close neighbors with poultry, or sell hatching eggs, or ever sell a bird to someone else. The potentials for spread of infection is just too great. People come on here frequently complaining of how they bought sick birds from so and so breeder, then go on to do the same themselves if proper measures aren't taken.

I totally agree with you 100%.

 

[ShannonR]

If my neighbor has a flock he chooses to maintain with antibiotics, vaccinations, medication and what not, covers his pen all around so our flocks never even look at each other yet a wild bird drinks from my flock's waters then his flock's and poof now his birds are sick with what my flock no longer suffers from yet are carriers of. He put alot of work and effort in raising his flock as he wants. But I have taken losses, treated birds and culled if necessary and all told have also put in alot of effort to get my flock just like I want. Am I the jerk or did I just pick the better way to raise my flock? I mean even if another person's flock didn't infect a flock wouldn't a wild bird eventually? After all, they are already resistant. If anything haven't I had to suffer losses, culled etc BECAUSE others have tried to undo the natural order of things by breeding with vaccines, medications etc?

Maybe you should talk to some of the folks down in Southern California and ask them how this sort of philosophy has been working out with their VND outbreak.

With that said.... I agree with you but only to a point. Immune resistance is all well and good.... knowingly infecting a neighbor's birds is not. Selling or sharing birds and eggs from your flock is not. You may even be potentially liable in a lawsuit, hard to say.