Fowl Cholera From Introduced Hens?

[vikkiplum]

Hello to all.
Please tell me what your thoughts are on this subject.
Can I apolagise firstly now for being so depressed & this being my 1st post aswell!! I promise to be happier soon, but would like to say a big HELLO!!!

We introduced new pol hens to our exsisting healthy flock in May. Isolated them for a week 1st then let them wander & become part of our happy chicken family. Although in that 1st week, in fact 1 day after getting them 2 appeared poorly so we kept them seperate. All the rest appeared fine. Within 2 weeks pretty much all our flock including the new ones were poorly showing symptoms (Same as 1st 2)in varying degrees, some died from the symptoms pretty quick, others had to be culled day in day out by my poor husband because they were suffering. We had one sent awy for tests & these came back and the conclusion was Fowl Cholera. We were advised that the brought in birds could very likely have either had underlying symptoms or were carriers and were advised that once infected, if they manged to get over it would stay carriers, therefore would carry on passing it on and would never be infection free. My lovely birds were like my children, all had names, all had thier little ways & personalities...I'm devastated! Weve kept chickens for a few years now and never had any problems with their health and are really so sad at the moment as we now have had to make the awful decision to cull our remaining babies, which has just recently taken place. We are still in shock, I miss them so much
The place we bought from appeared reputable & professional, however we have since learned some very disturbing things regarding the birds they were selling & the people who were in charge.
Has anyone else had this experience? Would appreciate any comments or adivce anyone has.
Thank you for reading my post.
Many Regards.

We will have chickens again, probably next year, but will NEVER!!! bring birds in again.

[CP]

What an terribly unhappy experience for you. I'm really sorry you've had to lose your birds in such awful circumstances. (((hugs)))

According to my book, it can be treated using antibiotics including sulphonamides & there's also a vaccine.
No doubt you've looked it up on the internet. I found these sites very informative.

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index ... 202600.htm
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/diseasein ... eurellosis

Unfortunately all too late for your girls.

It's not something I've come across myself. Where did you get them from? If you'd rather not name & shame on a public forum, you could just PM me.

[Henwife]

As you say, a ghastly experience. However, by havng a PM done you know exactly what the problem was and have dealt with it. Rather more worrying is the fact that the place from which you bought them can presumably go on selling birds. I am so neurotic about bringing in disease now that I hatch almost everything that I want. On the rare occasion that I buy in, the poor incommer gets at least a fortnight's isolation. Hybrids (for eggs) I do buy in, but only from one known and trusted source.

[CP]

Is it a notifiable disease Henwife? Couldn't find out if it was, at least not when I was looking last night.

[vikkiplum]

Hi Everyone.
Thanks for all messages. Yes I agree, from now on we will only be hatching our own, but to have to start again is so sad at the moment , its hard enough just coming to terms with losing our babies. As for the place they were bought from...Yes their still trading and according to their 'Knew' manager (Hubby phoned them yesterday & was really spoken to badly) in his words they are really busy & he's now running a professional 'Outfit'! so what was like before? Plus of course denying any problem with their birds health (He wasnt even around at the time we bought!). We bought from them because they are agents of Meadowsweet poulrty in Kent and we'd heard that their birds (Meadowseet) were good. Also the sellers had a very knowledable website & appeared to have a good enviroment in which they kept the birds. We bought what we thought were M/sweet birds from them, then another bombshell...From them! found out, that the birds we got probably came from another source and were sold to us under false pretences! The man who sold to us told us he was 1 of the partners & managed the birds/site with his wife (Another of several partners it now transpires!) He had conveintly disappeared 5 weeks after selling to us & was either sacked or walked out, dont know which as they keep telling different stories! Anyway we have taken advice from a solicitor regarding all thats happened, have spoken with Defra & 1 of their vets & trading standards who will be investigating, so hopefully something can be done about them...Sadly wont bring back my babies but hopefully know one else will go through what we have in the future.
In answer to 'Notifiable Diseases'....No, Fowl Cholera isnt (Vet told us that) as far as I Know their are only 2 & they are Newcastles & Avian...But I could be wrong!
All I can say is if anyone wants to know where I bought them from please PM me, just incase any of you out there have bought from them since April this year and have had probs with your birds or your just interested. Anyway Thanks again to all of you & thanks for making me feel welcome!x

[Henwife]

My understanding is that an awful lot of hybrid hatching eggs/day olds are now imported from eastern europe so goodness knows what they bring with them. I'm glad to see that you've notified all the right people - I just hope they manage to leave their Ivory Towers, get out into the field and look into this.

[vikkiplum]

I agree henwife...Totally!
Even though my vet is brillant & an avian specialist/farm animal vet etc, its taken him over 3 weeks just to get the report back to us and that was with alot of hassling from me on the telephone! I cant comment on Trading standards & Defra yet because its only been alittle while since I informed them. But Im not letting this go without a fight......I owe it to my babies. I am so ANGRY about what has happened, especially when I think about seeing my hubby cry as he's having to dispatch our little friends & even worse for him because he knew that I was indoors sobbing. One thing I do know, I will never buy in again thats for sure.