Because we could no longer cope with the increase in the number of questions and fanciers had to wait (too) long for an answer, we have decided to close off our question section. Furthermore, the great majority of new questions submitted has already been answered in the past.
As we want to keep offering interesting medical information to our readers, we will now concentrate more on those general Ask The Vet articles which have already been published on our homepage in the past. In addition, our Ask The Vet archive, which contains numerous questions and answers, is a mine of information which will still remain at your disposal.
Before you vaccinate against Salmonella you must be sure there is no Salmonella on your loft.You can give a blind cure against Salmonella before the vaccination. Better is to send the droppings (gathered during 5 days) to a laboratory. They will do a bacterial culture .If this test is negative you may vaccinate.When you have carriers on your loft and you vaccinate against Salmonella you can have some serious vaccination reactions.I don’t advise to give paramyxovaccination and paratyphusvaccination at the same time. Pigeons with Salmonella don’t always have lumps on the wings or legs. Symptoms of streptococcosis in pigeons are often quite similar to the symptoms of paratyphus.The best you can do is to contact a pigeon veterinarian. He can check if your pigeons are affected with streptococcosis. Streptococci bacteria are not sensible for enrofloxacin. Amoxicillin or ampicillin are first choice for treating this disease. Ask your veterinarian to check also for worms. They also can be responsible for loosing weight and for problems with the droppings.
Indien Salmonella geisoleerd wordt uit de mest zijn er verschillende maatregelen die mijns inziens moeten getroffen worden. Deze maatregelen betreffen therapie, omgevingsbehandeling en immunisatie. Naar mijn mening dient de hele kolonie 14 dagen tot 3 weken behandeld te worden met Baytril. Tegelijkertijd met de instelling van de behandeling dienen de hokken volledig vrij gemaakt van paratyfus door hygiënische behandeling (onsmettingsmiddelen en/of gasbrander gebruiken). Goten, daken, terras,... waar de duiven soms vertoeven dienen ook gereinigd en ontsmet te worden.
Van de kiem die geisoleerd is bij het mestonderzoek adviseer ik een autovaccin te maken. Na het stoppen van de behandeling worden de duiven gevaccineerd. Er wordt ook tegelijkertijd voortdurend gescreend op paratyfus waarbij dragers zoveel mogelijk geidentificeerd en zoveel als mogelijk ook geëlimineerd worden.
Bij een degelijke en efficiënte aanpak en verdere opvolging is de prognose voor kweek- en vliegresultaten uitstekend. De prestaties van de duiven zullen normaal gezien zelfs verbeteren.
De kuur tegen paratyfus wordt best op het einde of na de rui toegediend;
de beste middelen zijn of baytril 10% of dicural of parastop Belgica De Weerd gedurende 10 tot 12 dagen
Het probleem dat u beschrijft ,waarbij zowel oude als jongen tijdens de kweek sterven kan verschillende redenen hebben.
De meest voor de hand liggende reden is volgens mij een salmonella besmetting ( maw paratyfus ) , maar het kan ook een coli-besmetting zijn of een streptococcen infectie.
Het lijkt mij het meest aangewezen eens een duif te laten lijkschouwen en een volledig onderzoek te laten uitvoeren om de oorzaak te achterhalen , want de behandeling van deze verschillende kwalen is niet gelijk.
Behandelingen voor de volgende ziekten :
- paratyfus : eerst alle duiven met symptomen verwijderen en dan de andere duiven 20 dagen behandelen met een antibioticum ( bvb. Theraprim , Cosumix Plus , Baytril , ... ) en nadien inenten tegen paratyfus.
- Streptococcen : een behandeling met amoxicilline gedurende 8 dagen
- coli-infectie : een behandeling van 8 dagen met bvb Theraprim , Cosumix , Baytril , ...
Daarom gezien de verschillende behandelingen , lijkt het mij verstandig om eerst een onderzoek en eventueel een antibiogram te laten maken alvorens alles te gaan uitproberen.
Vaccinating against pox, pmv, paratyphus
SOME ADVICE IN ADVANCE.
Never vaccinate ill pigeons, this will cause a pigeon that will become even more ill, and the pigeon won’t get enough power to built up a strong immunity against the disease you have vaccinated, this means that the vaccine won’t work properly.
Never vaccinate during an important period, such as the racing period, the breeding period, the molting period. Make sure you have an interval of minimum 1 month between the date of vaccination and the start of that period, so you won’t have any negative influence due to the vaccination.
Never vaccinate with medication that has not been stored under the right circumstances or that is expired.
I will make a small trip along the life of a pigeon.
At the age of 3 weeks, when the pigeon is weaned, it is already possible to vaccinate the youngsters against paramyxovirosis.
This has the advantage that it is a very easy job, because they don’t fly at that moment.
Another more important advantage is that you have not that high risk that the youngsters came already in contact with the circo-virus.
This virus will attack the immunity system of the pigeon, so the pigeon can become ill, but when you have vaccinated them at a time that they were infected with the circo-virus, they won’t make such a good protection against that disease.
In England they saw a few years ago that the immunity against pmv didn’t last 1 year anymore after the vaccination against pmv, but when they did some more research, they founded out that the pigeons had been infected with thecirco-virus at the time of vaccination.
They also have seen, that vaccinated pigeons against pmv at an age of 3 weeks, will have lesser problems with adeno-virus. But be careful: Lesser will not mean no problems at all!!!
A disadvantage of vaccinating the pigeons at an age of 3 weeks, is that you can’t do it together with the pox or paratyphus, because for this they have to be minimum 6 weeks old.
At the age of 6 weeks you can vaccinate them against the pox or paratyphus.
I would suggest to do first the pox, because the pox vaccination, no matter which vaccine you use, can give some problems with the homing ability of the pigeons, certainly on day 7 & 8 after the vaccination. Therefor it is better not to let them fly during that period, so they won’t get lost. If you vaccinate against the pox at an age of 6 weeks, they don’t fly very much outside, and you don’t have to interrupt the learning procedure.
Don’t vaccinate at the same time against the pox and paratyphus, because the pox vaccination can cause a backsliding of the pigeons immunity, which can give some problems for the pigeons to make a good immunity againstparatyphus.
Pmv together with the pox is no problem at all.
I should suggest to vaccinate the youngsters against paratyphus at an age of 10 weeks, and when needed, following the prescription of the manufacturer, once again at an age of 13 weeks.
As yearling and old pigeon, I would vaccinate them against pmv just after weaning the youngsters (you can do the youngsters and old pigeons at the same time, if they don’t breed after that), or when they are on eggs (at that moment the fertilization is already finished). Although most fanciers don’t vaccinate older pigeons against the pox if they were vaccinated as youngsters, I would suggest to do it still, just like the manufacturers mention!!
Vaccinating against paratyphus can be done 1 month before the breeding period, after molting, and/or 1 month before the racing season begins. But think always to treat the pigeons before you will vaccinate them against paratyphus, in order to have not that much problems afterwards.
Very important!!!
Always vaccinate all your pigeons,
not only those you race with,
but also the breeders and hens!!!!
What can be done and what not??
On 3 weeks old |
On 6 weeks old |
In combination with pox |
In combination with paratyphus |
|
Pmv |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Pox |
No |
Yes |
- |
No |
Paratyphus |
No |
Yes |
No |
- |
This is just a scheme, always follow the advice of the manufacturer!!!
A small note of the combination pmv and paratyphus.
You can vaccinate this at the same time, but not in the same syringe, because they saw that after vaccinating with the products in the same syringe, there will be a good protection against the paratyphus, but not such a good protection against the pmv. When you administer it in a different syringe, but at the same time, they saw you won’t have such problems.
A small note of the combination pmv and pox.
In Belgium there are two vaccines available against the pox, one that has to be mixed with the pmv solvent, so you can inject it subcutaneous. The other one has to be administered separately by pulling out some feathers on the path or on the breast, followed by putting some vaccine over there with a small brush. This last one can also be done at the same time as the vaccination against the pmv.
In practice, we see that the follicle method (with the small brush) is more effective compared with the subcutaneous against the pox. If you vaccinate 100 pigeons with the follicle method, the efficacy is almost 100 %, when you vaccinate 100 pigeons with the subcutaneous method, you can have 6-7 pigeons who will develop pox lesions later on.
There are no vaccins against respiratory diseases in pigeons; there are some vaccins in the market against paratyphoid, it depends from the country where you live; some are good, some are no effective at all ( best is to follow the advice from your vet )
most important against paratyphoid is a cure from about 12 days in wintertime f.i. with baytril 10%......
In your case you should treat the birds for at least two weeks with Baytril. Then you can give a prime vaccination with an inactive vaccine. One month later you can boost the immunity by giving an inactivated or live vaccine f.e.chevivac-s.
I always suggest to give a treatment against paratyphus before vaccinating them. Normally I give 10 - 14 days an antibioticum, which one, depends on the bacteriologic culture I have done on a 5 days sample. When paratyphus was found in that sample or not.
I usually will vaccinate against paratyphus immediately after the treatment. Depending on what kind of vaccine, it is possible you have to revaccinate after some weeks.
Concerning that 5 days sample of droppings. Be sure you didn't administer any treatment the last 14 days, so you will have no false negative result of the droppings!!