Young birds need to be vaccinated for PMV, Pox and Paratyphoid four
weeks before you start training. This will give them plenty of time
to recover from any side efffects of the vaccinations before you start
training. Young birds need this chance for their immune system to
recover, so they can handle the young bird races.
All the birds in your coops need to be revaccinated for PMV two weeks
before you start breeding. It is a big expense every year to do this,
but the risks are too great without it. Years ago, the risk was small,
but with breeders and flyers shipping birds all over the world now,
the chances of your birds being exposed to disease are much greater.
I have spent a great deal of money to acquire the excellent stock
birds that I have in my loft. Many of them could not be replaced.
I would not want to risk losing any of them to disease when it can
be so easily prevented. It is worth it to me, to spend the money on
the vaccines and the time to administer them. In return, I prevent
any problems with my birds.
I have been vaccinating my birds since 1996. The year before this,
my young birds got sick right in the middle of a great winning season
for me. I had to stop flying my birds. I ended up losing almost all
of the birds to the disease. The few that did survive never really
flew well after that and I have culled them. I never want to go through
another season like that one, so I vaccinate regularly.
Once others in your club and combine start vaccinating, you almost
have to do it. The birds that have been vaccinated become carriers
and can transmit the disease to other pigeons. You put your birds
and your whole investment at risk if you don't vaccinate.
Since the season that my birds got sick, we have had several more
seasons when lots of flyers lost their whole team to disease. They
didn't understand the information they had been given and put their
birds at risk by not vaccinating them.
It is expensive and a pain, but if you want to fly pigeons, vaccinations
are part of the game now. You won't win for long without them.
In the fall of 2001, we had put together two fabulous young bird
teams to fly. The kids were going to fly one team and Craig would
fly the other team. We were so excited to fly and hoped that we
would have another fantastic winning season like we had done the
year before. We were also excited because The Northern Utah Combine
was going to join with the rest of the flyers along the Wasatch
Front and fly as a Wasatch Front Concourse on a trial basis. This
would give us the opprotunity to compete with much larger numbers
of pigeons. The first week we had a great race and took sixth place
in the club, the combine and the concourse. We also had twenty
nine pigeons who earned points on the races.
The next week we had some really unusual hot weather. I wanted
to train my pigeons, but because of some early morning meetings,
I could not take them on a long enough toss before work in the
morning. My oldest daughter took them out right after school on
Tuesday afternoon. The birds did not look or feel their best, so
I had my daughter let them out for a shorter toss.It was a really
hot afternoon, so I worried about them, but thought for sure they
would make it home fine.
The results of that toss were scary. The pigeons did not come
home. I lost about twenty pigeons on what should have been an easy
toss. I knew something was just not quite right. As the week progressed,
the birds did not recover well from the previous week. Friday night,
I took my birds over to the club to enter them in the race, then
my wife and I left to drive to Colorado for the Spirit of Colorado
pigeon race. We drove all night long.
The next day, the race at home was a disaster. I had huge losses
again. The birds that did come home looked terrible. My daughter
and my brother, David clocked them in. We placed fifth and ninth
in the race, but had terrible returns on the race, getting back
only about twenty of sixty pigeons on the first day. We knew we
had a health problem that needed immediate attention. As I waited
for the pigeons to come in for the Spirit of Colorado race, my
mind kicked into gear and started analyzing all of the clues to
this problem.
Week two as I had put pigeons in the race crates, I had noticed
feed in the crates. Some birds had thrown up the food that was
in their craw on the previous race. This would be easy for other
birds to eat while in the race crates on the way to the race. My
birds had gotten sick within three days of this first race, so
that gave me an incubation time on the disease. I guessed that
the birds that had not returned from the training toss and the
race had been sick and died on the way home. My birds had not recovered
from the race and they had been really light on their weight all
week. I had also noticed foul smelling droppings in the loft, but
I had been so busy getting ready to leave for the Colorado race
that I had not payed attention to all of these signs.
I took the opportunity to discuss things with a great friend of
mine, Frank McLaughlin. He immediately thought I had the Adeno
Virus and told me all that he knew about the disease. On Sunday
evening when we got home from Colorado, I called another great
friend, Mike Brown in California. He also thought I was dealing
with the Adeno Virus.
Monday morning, I made a call to Jedd's to see what medications
they had to deal with this new virus. They recommended I treat
with Ammoxicillin for three weeks. The Adeno Virus is a virus and
therefore antibiotics will not kill the virus. However, the antibiotic
would help stop the spread of secondary infections that would hit
as the pigeons' immunitiy systems were low. I ordered it and started
to treat the pigeons as soon as it arrived. A few more pigeons
made it home on Sunday and Monday, but they did not look great.
By this time, my whole young bird team seemed to be infected.
I decided not to continue flying the season and to let my birds
have time to recover. I had some really great birds that I did
not want to lose and I felt like it was my fault for letting the
problem get out of hand before I recognized it. I hoped my pigeons
would recover and be ready to fly in the spring. The antibiotic
helped and most of my pigeons recovered just fine. The few that
did not respond to the medication were culled.
I watched the rest of the season carefully as the other flyers
in the club continued to send birds each week. I knew that others
in the club must also have sick birds. The losses that season were
tremendous. The returns from the races were so poor. Each week
the number of lofts diminished and the number of birds being sent
diminished. Even though these flyers knew why I had quit racing,
most were unwilling to admit they had sick birds or to do anything
to stop the progress of the Adeno Virus. I am grateful that I chose
to stop flying because some of the birds that recovered from this
illness proved to be great flyers and breeders later on.
Things change as more information is learned. This fall, 2004,
my young bird team again got hit with the Adeno Virus. I sent healthy
birds to a training toss just prior to the first race. By
midweek, I was dealing with sick birds as the virus attacked
my
pigeon team.
Experience
helps.
This
time,
I immediately recognized the foul odor from the droppings, the pigeons
who were vomiting their food up, the drop in weight of each sick
pigeon. I called Jedds again for help.
The treatment had changed a little as they had also learned how
to best handle this virus. They again prescribed Ammoxicillan to
help with the secondary infections, Adeno
Zap,
which is a Break Through product, as a gut treatment, Electrolytes
and lots of rest. I immediately started the treatment and my pigeons
responded.
I had
caught it early enough that only part of my pigeons were sick. I
treated them all anyway. I have continued to use the Adeno Zap
each week as a gut treatment because I know that there are still
birds being sent to the races who are carrying the Adeno Virus.
Since it is a virus, birds can get it more than one time.
Because I have a large team, I was able
to still send a team of 36 healthy birds
on the first race. I placed 17th thru 21st in a concourse of 1,414
pigeons. I felt really good about these results.
The
pigeons that were sick responded really well to the treatment
and within
a week
they
were
all looking
really
good again. I sent 87 birds on the second race and won the concourse
race, taking the first six places, plus 15th, 16th and 17th place
in a field of 1,251 pigeons. Amazing considering many of these
birds had just recoverd from being sick.
Week three was phenomenal. I sent 87 pigeons and on the north
section of the concourse I took 45 out of 50 of the top places, including
1st thru 26th place. This result includes 838 pigeons. I
am still waiting to get the results for the entire councourse to
see how I did there. From what I have heard, I believe I won the
entire concourse. I still can't believe that many birds came screaming
home!
Week four was another good week for the loft. It was a hard race
with really tough headwinds. I sent 77 birds and won the north section
of the concourse with a bird that was almost 15 minutes ahead of
the second place bird. I had six birds in the top ten percent and
another eleven birds in the top twenty percent. There were 386 birds
in this result, so you can see the returns were not really great
from this race compared to the week before, yet I had 17 of my birds
home when I went to knock off my clock. Early on the morning after
the race,another 43 birds arrived. Then the headwinds
picked up
and it
rained
and stormed the rest of the day. I was only missing
fifteen birds out of my 77. Hopefully they will come in when the
weather clears. I will have to wait for the whole concourse result
to see how I did,
but
we
are
really
excited to see how quickly the birds have recovered from the Adeno
Virus.
My point is this: You have to be aware of what is going on in
your loft and use the knowledge you acquire to keep your pigeons
healthy and disease free. Take the time to feel and handle your
birds daily. Look for signs of illness. Though you may think it
gross to examine bird droppings, that is usually one of the quickest
and surest ways to know if your birds are healthy or not. Take
time to observe your birds so that you can tell when something
is different in the loft.
New stuff will come
along all the time to knock your birds down. You
have
to be
prepared
to take
care
of it and act quickly to help your birds. If you let it get out
of hand, then it will take much longer to overcome and you will
lose great pigeons in the process. You certainly won't win very
many races with sick birds. Talk to people who are knowledgeable.
Make friends with other flyers and use that network of friends
to help you in times of trouble. I would be happy to discuss
any health related problems you are having with your birds. Having
been around pigeons for most of my life, I have encountered nearly
everything that is currently out there. I can probably help you determine
what you have and help you find the right treatment for it. If I
can't give you the answers, I can help direct you to someone who
can. I have found that the employees at Jedd's are really helpful
and friendly.
One last word: It often costs a lot to keep pigeons healthy. Vaccinations,
vitamins and medications are all very expensive and as yet, there
are no health insurance plans that cover pigeons. Usually it is cheaper
to prevent problems than to treat them. To me it is worth the cost.
You will have to decide for yourself if it is worth the cost for
your loft. Many times it is the difference between a loft that
wins and those that don't.
|
