Vet advice from an experienced poultry vet

Not only holiday makers like hot weather and especially red mite! so do parasites

- DAVID PARSONS

This warm weather has been a mixed blessing. If you were holidaying it was great, but warm, humid and sometimes wet weather, is great for parasites as well as garden weeds.

If you are rearing then controlling coccidia should be at the front of your mind. However, once the birds reach adulthood coccidia are usually more of an interesting finding than a cause for concern. However, worms and red mite are of concern to all of you. More thoughts on this later.

SYMPTOMS BUT NO DIAGNOSIS AS YET

This has been another busy month. One afternoon was spent with a Bristol Vet student trying to establish the cause of the illness of one of her mother’s hens. The hen had to be euthanased and determining the cause of her sickness did not prove to be easy. I had thought that Marek’s disease was going to be the likeliest reason but that was not the case. So at the moment, I am still mulling over the clinical signs, post-mortem findings and possible reasons for her sickness. Hopefully, by next month I will have that sorted. In the meantime, a reminder that signs that may be quite obvious and dramatic when alive such as apparent blindness and inability to stand, may not be necessarily be associated with dramatic post-mortem findings.

As ever, it comes down to how much are you prepared to spend to find out? Even after parting with hundreds of pounds you may be none the wiser. We will, of course, know what it is not!

MEET DAVID AND THE SALISBURY POULTRY CLUB

The New Forest & Hampshire County Show 25th, 26th and 27th July 2023 are planning a Farm Experience Zone within which will be a Show farm along with displays and poultry related items. Unfortunately, there will not be any live poultry present.