Well, update the sick flock here...the necropsy finalized a few days ago...and at first he said it was MG so I went ape spending $$ on tylan, and in the water AND they were so sick I injected daily...and then ran out of tylan and could find no more and birds were getting worse...
Then the cultures came back and it was e.coli infection in the sinus, not MG !
Meanwhile birds were about to die, gasping and turning gray...so I shot a few up with Pen Aqueous,,
and decided since I had no more antibiotics, to try the chlorinated water...I had ran across this on the web studying colibacillosis~~~~purely by happenstance~~~
It worked !
For 2 days now they have had the formula of water as per WSU...and every bird is excellent.
I cannot hardly believe it, but I know colibacillosis is immune to almost every antibiotic save 3 or 4 we have never seen before not can I find, except gentamicin, and it is so hard to find.
Imagine, 4 dead birds later and $$$ in antibiotics and all the shots and hours spent mixing their water with antibiotics every morning...and a $1.97 bottle of simple hopuse hould bleach did it all.
I think it works so good cuz the birds stick the beak in it to drink, thereby flusing the bacteria with chlorine, and the bacteria cannot develope an immunity to a chemical.
See resistance:
http://www.pjbs.org/ijps/fin666.pdf
and here is the drinking water study:
http://www.westvet.com/collibacilliosis.htm
done by WSU veterinarians, a very interesting study !
We here are on a rain water system, and also haul water that is chlorinated, but evidently not enough.
Anyone having unchlorinated water (such as a well system) can have these same problems.
How it all started I have no idea.
We humans here, and the baby chicks here at the house, have chlorinated and filtered water...but the critters outside and the flock of BBS and Cuckoos and Brahmas have rain water, and apparently any bird flying over, infected with something, can poop on the roof, and it goes right into the water barrel.
I am so glad it was not MG !
I was flipping that their eggs would carry the disease, production would be lessened, kidneys and livers could be scared.. etc.
A leap of faith !
I was terrified that taken off the antibiotics and surely they would die within hours...
Faith and Chlorine.
Not one sneeze, not one cough...they have been 'playing' and rotovating and even flying all over the yard today, bright, upright, alert !
YIPPEE!!!!!!
e
