Pointing It Out To You!!! Summertime Blues
I recently attended the UGBA Convention in Myrtle Beach, SC and I met several folks from the Southeastern part of the good ole USA that I’d never had the pleasure of meeting before. As I was finishing up the notes for my speech that I was supposed to deliver, I let my eyes travel over all the different characters that make up our great community and there were many. All in all, we all have the same questions and concerns. We are all seeking a bit of knowledge on the care of these warriors we have chosen to hitch our barrels to in this life.
Every day I follow many sites on FaceBook and receive messages from cockers all over the world. Lately, it’s all been the same. This time of year is when respiratory diseases are brought in by the migratory birds that fly either north or south depending on your physical location. These birds have many diseases that they bring in with them. It is not uncommon to see Cholera, Coryza, Sinusitis as these are common bacterial diseases. Roup is a common viral disease, and Chronic Respiratory Disease (CRD) is a fairly common Myoplasm (smaller than a bacterium, but larger than a virus under a microscope - easily treatable with proper antibiotics).
These birds can also bring in Avian Influenza, but let’s not focus on that nightmare as it is not common and there is not a treatment, and the CDC will be up your ass so far you may never see the light of day. This my friends is what I would commonly refer to as a “Crash and Burn”.
This is also the time of year when insects are at their most active serving as host to every sort of worm imaginable (there are about 96 different worms that can infect your flock).
This is to say nothing about the feather mites, ear mites, red mites, black mites, fleas, ticks, chiggers, red bugs, lice, gnats, mosquitoes and biting flies that are at their most active.
Okay so I have listed a host of problems with no solutions and that my friends is not my style. There are solutions to all these maladies with the exception of Avian Influenza. A wise man once said that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure so my biggest advice to everyone is to remain diligent in your preventative routines.
Worm on a 45-day cycle with a good wormer either through the water or by direct application and a good systemic wormer on a 45 day cycle (see my past blog on this entitled “Worms, Worms, Worms”).
Keep a good gram negative/gram positive antibiotic on hand in injectable, capsule, or water-soluble forms for easy treatment. (I don’t know much about the ones available from Mexico so I’m not going to recommend one.
Treat for insect infestations in an aggressive fashion. Diatomaceous Earth, Wood Ash and Limestone make a great Dust Bath. There are numerous sprays that can be used ranging from Natural Remedies to Chemical ones. (If it kills a fish, it will kill a chicken so read any labels before applying.
Always treat for coccidiosis in a regular 45-day cycle, and provide a good grit source (read my past blog entitled “True Grit”.
Regularly check your feed for mold, mildew or spore growth with a black light, if it fluoresces, it is bad and not recommended to be fed to your birds at all.
With these few suggestions, you should make it through these dogdays of summer, and back into the new season healthier for your trouble.
Quick Story for ya:
Back in the day, I had a young man that would frequent my farm. To say he was crazy about these ole birds was an understatement. One day he called me in a panic. Seems he was feeding his birds and when he reached the end of his line, he looked behind him and to his horror, he had birds flipping and flopping all over the place, all of these birds died rather rapidly. He was devastated. I tried to talk him through it, and I knew it was a feed contamination but not the source. It was a mystery as to what could kill these birds so effectively and so fast.
A few days or maybe a week went by, and I got another call with the same symptoms on another yard in the same area. I asked him to tell me where he purchased his feed, and I called the first guy and confirmed that they both bought from the same feed mill. I went to the feed mill and talked with the owner and he confirmed that they had both bought whole corn from him recently. Upon questioning the feed mill owner, he was buying from local suppliers, and they came in with truck loads and dumped it in his bins where he processed it, I checked the bins and there was no sign of mold or algae, but there was something I found curious there was evidence of Ergot Fungus in the bins. Ergot is a poison to chickens. So, we solved that particular mystery, not through anything more than communication between 2 Roostermen that needed a solution to a problem that each thought was unique only to them, but actually affected (or had the potential) an entire community.
Keep ‘em Crowing
