uno wrote:Uh....I will toss my boot into the fray.
I am having a hard time with this. Not that your birds are sick. But that it has become some huge, emotional, turmoil filled event of self evaluation, agony and almost religious soul searching. A nail biting excursion into 'do I cull, don't I cull, do I send for necropsy or not, is this the end of my chicken days'?
All of these questions are, of course, going to occur to you in a moment of flock illness. But how much personal agony you allow this to cause you...that is the question, or one of them.
Getting this disease is NOT some personal failing on your part! This disease is GLOBAL! World wide. Bigger than your back yard, your province, bigger than your country or continent. And there is little old you feeling the weight of the world on your shoulders because your birds are sick. As if this is a reflection on you as a chicken keeper and you have failed. WRONG!
Silkie, I would say, for the sake of your mental health, do not go down the path of personalizing an event that is largely beyond your control and has happened to perhaps billions of chickens over the years.
I would quote you here but I never really got the hang of that, but you were wondering if all the eggs you might sell for hatching will be contaminated. Let me ask you a question...if you kill every bird on your place, have empty buldings for a year or two, are you going to refuse to ever have chickens again based on the possibility that something might go wrong? Because that is EXACTLY what the reality is!! If you start over, there is an extreme liklihood that the eggs you get or the new birds you get have the same damn thing! It is EVERYWHERE. So, should you throw in the towel and quit keeping birds forever because it might not be a guaranteed success? So yes, your egs might contain sick birds. And then new eggs you get to start a new flock are also pretty likely to contain sick birds!
Excuss me???????????
Higgins, your knowledge (and ability to use the quote function) is staggering. BUt after reading your posts, I still cannot decipher, for certain and with clarity, what it is you are trying to say? Are you telling Silkie to kill them all and build Fort Knox around the new ones? Are you telling her to realize and accept the vagaries and uncertainties of life and forge ahead? Are you telling her to dose them puppies with antibiotics now and forever as a control and preventative? I CANNOT get a clear picture of your stance, other than you, like the rest of us, struggle with where you draw your personal line. And that decision is just that, personal. And a struggle.
Silkie, if I was in your kitchen having coffee with you, this would be my advice to you: Treat them. Give them the recommended dose for the suggested time and after that...it's out of your hands. If htey live, they live, if they die, they die. If they live with the odd recurrence of symptoms, well, so they get symptoms. It's annoying but not fatal. Like how I feel about the common cold. Annoying, but rarely fatal...also not eradicated...also recurring...also global....and no reason to quit life because you might get a cold.
The eggs you bought came with NO GUARANTEE of disease free and it is not your personal torch to bear to send out into the world eggs that you can guarantee as disease free. Because NO ONE ON THIS SITE can make that claim, nor would I expect them to! You do have an obligation to not send out eggs from a hen who is so sick you have to prop her up with sticks to keep her on the nest. You do have an obligation to take all steps reasonable to ensure a healthy flock. But to cull your whole flock with the idea that this extreme step will buy you some sort of absolution from the chicken gods and you will be granted a disease free flock ever after, is crazy.
I will state that if you keep birds, just as Higgins said, LIVEstock can become DEADstock. But I would only take the radical cull step if it guaranteed you a problem free start over. But it does not. So what would you gain?
It is my belief that birds who have this and recover are STRONGER, have a fighters; constitution. Give your birds every chance and every boost to live. Then realize that doing your best IS good enough. I would only cull those who continue to be droopy sickies. And after that...enjpoy them, they will be alive and act/look like chickens.
You did not invent this disease, you will not cure this disease, you will never be truly protected from this disease and starting over is just spinning your wheels, in my humble and rambling opinion. And if you are willing to admit that your flock has it, in all honesty most of us should admit that our flocks probably have had it too!
Do NOT agonize more than you have to.
Anyways, you had a good comment going on, I liked it, have that wonderful day, CynthiaM.
. I had a few chicks that I brought home that I had in quarantine for 30 days in my house. They looked great, one of the new chicks had puffy eyes and I thought maybe it was from the wood shavings I had just put in their brooder. I always leave my chicks on paper towel for the first month. I put some of my chicks that I had hatched with them and moved them out to my deck so they could enjoy the sunshine. Within a few days all the chicks were sick. The ones in the coop were fine. After a heart wrenching few weeks I had someone suggest that I send one of the chicks in for testing. I got the call within a week and Mycoplazma was confirmed. I culled all of the sick chicks. Hardest thing I've had to do with my birds. So now...I'm concerned about the ones in the coop. The sick chicks weren't near the coop but I was while caring for the sick babies in my laundry room. I'm stuck with wondering if my breeding birds could have been infected by me? This was a month ago now and so far I haven't seen any of the symtoms. (Knock on Wood!)
