The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: vfr400boy on March 07, 2019, 11:47:36 am

Title: Upset
Post by: vfr400boy on March 07, 2019, 11:47:36 am
Bought my daughter 10 pol hens from a bloke on Sunday, on Monday they all looked a little off colour buy Tuesday they was ill I rung the bloke up he sed ok I will send you some drugs ( so am now thinking he new they was ill ) now all eyes are puffy and they all look terrible I think am going to have to knock them so it don’t spread to my other birds , am gutted and so is my 7 year old daughter, he was going to refund me but now I can’t get hold of him
Title: Re: Upset
Post by: doganjo on March 07, 2019, 09:38:18 pm
What a shame. Bad enough if they were for yourself but very emotionally upsetting for a wee lassie.  If you explain the symptoms here someone maybe able to guide you as to what to treat them with.  Maybe, especially if they are pets for your daughter, it might be worth a vet visit?

Hope you manage to sort it out
Title: Re: Upset
Post by: SallyintNorth on March 07, 2019, 11:41:05 pm
I had exactly that, though without the added stress of the youngster and her feelings.  :hug:  I took the same attitude you did, didn’t want to infect the existing birds, so the new ones had to go.   :'(.

I hope you at least manage to get your money back - and can find a better supplier for healthier replacements.
Title: Re: Upset
Post by: vfr400boy on March 08, 2019, 06:19:25 am
I am 90% sure it was micro plasma ( or how ever you spell it )
Title: Re: Upset
Post by: twizzel on March 08, 2019, 09:44:43 am
Take the dead/ill birds back to the seller, he might listen to you then!
Title: Re: Upset
Post by: abc123 on March 08, 2019, 10:09:02 am
Yes thats terrible if he knew about it. :( You should definately get a full refund. People should be more responsible and not just sell for the money. :rant:
Good luck
Title: Re: Upset
Post by: sabrina on March 08, 2019, 11:47:01 am
I do hope you get your money back and your other birds will be OK.
Title: Re: Upset
Post by: chrismahon on March 08, 2019, 12:21:42 pm
You need to know what commercial immunisation viruses they were given, if any. These are live viruses, given in sequence during rearing, which can flare-up with the stress of handling, transport and new surroundings. Sometimes they overwhelm the birds and they die, even healthy ones. Problem is if your existing flock isn't immunised with the same they will catch all these viruses simultaneously- this happened to us when we put hybrids into a pedigree flock. So you were right to keep them well away.


Antibiotics will not cure them, just control any secondary infections resulting. I think it is usual to give hybrids weak strains of IB, ILT and Mycoplasma now (airborne spray?), but I'm rather out of touch with that living here. The only immunisation here is Newcastle disease, compulsory for showing and which has to be renewed every year as it is a dead virus immunisation.
Title: Re: Upset
Post by: in the hills on March 08, 2019, 03:05:53 pm
We bought 4 little Pekin growers last Autumn. They were from a breeder that we had purchased from before. Didn't know until my husband and daughter went to collect them that the poultry business had been sold on so different breeder. The hens were for my daughter. Husband and daughter thought that conditions there were not ideal but brought the birds anyway ..... Mistake!


As soon as we looked at them when daughter and husband returned with them they just didn't look 'right' . No symptoms but just not as healthy looking as the growers we had at home.


We kept them totally isolated from our own birds. Within a day or so they started sneezing. Vet suspected Mycoplasma. Treated with antibiotics but explained that it looked like a virulent form and the antibiotics only helped with secondary infection. Tried our best but lost all of them.


Vet said that it was very contagious and depending on the strain very deadly. Said not to let them near our other birds .... Luckily we hadn't.


Hoping that your isn't the same. But good idea to keep them away from the rest of your flock.
Title: Re: Upset
Post by: Womble on March 08, 2019, 07:03:23 pm
We had a similar experience to Chrismahon - bought a load of POL hybrids, kept them quarantined for ten days (no issues), then introduced them to the flock. Within a week all of our (unvaccinated) old birds came down with mycoplasma symptoms, even though the new ones were still healthy. 


We ended up culling the lot to protect our peafowl, so nowadays we only ever buy hatching eggs to introduce new stock, to hopefully lower the risk.