The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: Porterlauren on May 23, 2014, 05:58:22 pm
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I'm looking for some information and advice.
Bought in four chickens a few weeks ago, all seemed well, they came vaccinated, wormed etc, from a reputable and recommended breeder. . . . .
Anyway, looks like they were carrying Mycoplasma (or similar) as a while after being put in with the rest of the flock, they came down with all of the tell tale symptoms, bubbly eyes, snotty nose, rattling cough, stinky beaks etc.
By that point they had infected the rest of the flock, who began showing signs a few days ago, the odd sneeze and cough here or there, bit of a runny nose, funny eyes.
I've put them all on Tylan, and culled the worst hen today, as she was going down hill and it didn't seem fair on her.
Obviously if it IS Mycoplasma, they will all get it, and even if recovered, will be carriers. So we need to decided if we depopulate totally, and then start over in a while, or just keep a small closed flock for our own eggs (not really practical, as we need more birds on the ground for eggs and meat to sell).
My biggest concern, and one that unfortunately I think I know the answer to . . . . is that I have my half dozen ducks housed in a run next to the chickens, different feeders, drinkers and house, but only separated by heras panels and chicken wire. They do not free range together.
Now, I have read that ducks can catch MG from chickens when housed together. . . . but that's the limit of the information that I can find on it.
So my question is, are the ducks 100% going to contract it, by being close (although separate) from the chooks? And does the disease run the same course in ducks as chickens?
Basically, I don't really want to cull my ducks, especially a nice trio of abacot rangers. They are all super friendly and more like pets.
Fairly depressed about it all.
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My chooks had mycoplasma last year ,had a cull, gave remaining birds Tylan.
Ducks in seperate run but next to hens never showed any signs so :fc:
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Fingers crossed indeed.
Nice to get a wee ray of sunshine, on an otherwise shitty day!
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So sorry to hear that Porterlauren, am I right in thinking you are in south Wales? If so I'd be very interested to know where you got your birds - we've just had exactly the same thing happen after getting new birds and have the same dilemma...! We've never had a problem with any birds we've kept before and we've been keeping them for about 10 years now, some we've hatched ourselves but some bought in too.
I think the only thing you can do is wait and see re the ducks, it's 50/50 either way, but you might very well be okay given that they are next to not in with. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you, we know what it's like.
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Aye, it's a shitter to be fair. :(
Same here, never had a problem with any of the poultry, and i'm just kicking myself that when I first saw a sign of sniffles, I didn't whip the offenders straight back out. Although by that time it'd probably already spread. To be fair, i've been back to the breeder, and no others in the pen that my birds came from have any symptoms. . . . so i'm a bit stumped.
Thanks for the concern, it's really not nice just waiting to see if the quackers get ill to. :(