Dead Pheasant Poults

[BIG 5]

I've lost 100 poults but don't know the cause. The pheasants do gape but then sneeze. As a result death. We have checked some birds and found they do not contain worms. WHAT THE HELL IS IT? Any ideas.

[apache]

Ring your vet in the morning, they can arrange for you to take a few fresh dead ones (or even live sick ones) to your local Veterinary Laboratries agency for a full post mortem to find the cause.

[markm]

You say they do not contain worms, but have you wormed them?

[3xspringer]

I've lost 100 poults but don't know the cause. The pheasants do gape but then sneeze. As a result death. We have checked some birds and found they do not contain worms. WHAT THE HELL IS IT? Any ideas.

 

sounds like gapes!

[Devon Fox]

[Guest Right'n Left]

Hi,

 

If the birds are wheezing and tilting their heads back and gasping for air in a kind of 'sneezing' fasion then it could well be gapes. The gapeworm is a parasitic worm infecting the tracheas of certain birds. The resulting disease, known as gapes, occurs when the worms clog and obstruct the airway.

 

The best treatment is to speak to your feed providor and ask them to include an additive in your growers pellets called flubenvet.

 

Let me know if you need anymore help,

 

Harry

[Paul223]

yep sounds like gapes, worm every 14 days if your not using included food until the birds are big enough

[Beretta28g]

Flubenvet in the food, or panacure 12% in the water,

 

Also perhaps a dose of Aureomycin, that works well as a pick me up too.

[AmateX]

I doubt its gapes that is killing them unless it has been going on for some considerable time. If they do have gapes though it would more than likely be a contributing factor that will stress the birds making them more susceptible to other diseases etc.

 

Unless you know what the problem is it would seem prudent to take birds to a vet straight away. 100 birds would of cost in the region of £300 autopsy on live birds showing signs £75 for 5 + medication 1l baycox £75 or 1kg of Soludox £107 and the knowledge that the rest are on the way to recovery, there is no contest.

 

Also I would recommend Oramec as a wormer at 2-4ml/ltr of water it is a lot easier to use than panacure as it is not a suspension and won’t settle out.

 

One other tip for in feed wormers if you mix your own is buy Flubenol at £30/600g rather than flubenvet at £22/240g. Flubenol is 5% so double the strength of Flubenvet at 2.5% and a lot cheaper per gram.

[markm]

Always used panacur with gravity drinkers, never heard of this oramec, can't even find it with google, any more info or links?

[apache]

Always used panacur with gravity drinkers, never heard of this oramec, can't even find it with google, any more info or links?

Oromec is a sheep drench and there is no good reason for its use in gamebirds

 

http://www.noahcompendium.co.uk/merial_ani...ents/S3830.html

[markm]

Oromec is a sheep drench and there is no good reason for its use in gamebirds

 

http://www.noahcompendium.co.uk/merial_ani...ents/S3830.html

 

 

Having read your link , I think I will stick with panacur (blue) . Works for me!!!!

[ColinF]

Having read your link , I think I will stick with panacur (blue) :blink: . Works for me!!!!

 

What rate do you dilute the Panacur at?

[markm]

I mix a 500 ml bottle (about £11.50) of the panacur blue (10%) for sheep and cattle.

 

1 bottle to 100 litres of fresh tap water, 'no' effect to the birds but gapes gone in 24 hours. I use 2 bottles in a week and withdraw all other water.

 

Bestpet.co.uk deliver free but you need to say what type of animal it is for as it's only licensed for certain species (wink wink).

[al4x]

Oromec is a sheep drench and there is no good reason for its use in gamebirds

 

http://www.noahcompendium.co.uk/merial_ani...ents/S3830.html

 

 

Interestingly its an Ivermectin containing product and I assume you can use Ivermectin on gamebirds, be very interested if the "advice" to use it came from a local to you gamebird vet amatex as I've good links to a group that runs a game bird practice down your way. One problem is gamebirds aren't a big revenue for drug companies so few products are licensed for them hence this kind of thing happens

[apache]

Interestingly its an Ivermectin containing product and I assume you can use Ivermectin on gamebirds, be very interested if the "advice" to use it came from a local to you gamebird vet amatex as I've good links to a group that runs a game bird practice down your way. One problem is gamebirds aren't a big revenue for drug companies so few products are licensed for them hence this kind of thing happens

The problem we all have is the law relating to Veterinary Drugs, and that applies to users and gamekeepers just as it does to Vets. The law can be a pain in the backside but we have to follow it.

 

1. Very simply if a product has a licence for a particular condition in the animal to be treated it must be used first.

2. If no product is licenced in a particular species and another product is licenced for the same condition it can be used second under the direction of a Veterinary Surgeon.

3. If no product is licenced for that species AND for that conditions then another product can be prescribed by a Veterinary Surgeon, but it must have a licence in food producing animals.

 

Very simply if we are treating gapes Flubenvet is licenced for chickens, geese and turkeys. Therefore it has to be used in pheasants/grouse etc if that is what we want to control.

 

I don't doubt for a second that ivermectin or fenbendazole (Panacur) will kill the parasite but you are breaking the law and deserve to be caught.

 

To use a product off licence can only be done by under the direction of a Vet, even if you can buy the product over the counter.

 

This isn't something we can be blase about - gamebirds are food producing animals, we must treat them correctly.

[al4x]

thats pretty much what I was coming round to was it a suggestion from a vet that led to its use. Only interested as my brother works for a large veterinary group based in West Sussex and they have a very active game bird section covering a lot of the south and south east so could be one of his

[Gillaroo]

I looked into getting some Diatomaceous earth this year but so far no problems with gapes.

Anyone else used this in their pens?

Would be interested to hear any results.

 

Edit: Diatom is another name for Diatomaceous Earth, it is 100% natural and is mined from the ground. It is comprised of the fossilised remains of diatoms (a type of algae ). The diatoms have a hard shell made of 'sharp' non-crystalline silica, which does not decompose in the lakes, or sea where diatoms lived. Thus over long periods of time large volumes of diatoms are exposed on the surface of dried out lakes. It can be added to animal feed at a rate of 5% to combat intestinal worms and can be considered an organic remedy as its action is physical rather than chemical but many chicken keepers have found it unreliable. Its efficacy is debatable.

Edited August 12, 2010 by Gillaroo

[AmateX]

Yes it was suggested by my vet. It seems more effective in the laying birds than poults in the pen, this may be due to intake after rain when there are far more attractive places to drink from than a drinker.

 

The trouble with the game industry is that it is too small for the licensing and R&D that goes into the poultry industry.