Young bird sickness

[Andy]

Don't be fooled by it tho Chris. You don't just hsve a bit of ybs - you either have it or you dont!!
It is an airborne virus so if one has it, they will all have it.
In my experience they all tend to handle it differently, some are not to badly affected and others are real bad and can die.
Imo Its not worth isolating any that are sick but better to let it go thro them.
Now I have seen the first signs I will keep mine in maybe for 2 weeks on a light feed or until they start being a bit more responsive.
I don't treat them for anything and those that can't get thro it on there own won't get through it!
It's not nice to see what they go through mate.

I agree with your approach on the whole Dave. As I’ve said before I don’t treat for anything, haven’t for years. Mine had it a few weeks ago. I changed nothing. Fed them normally. Those that wanted to eat did those that didn’t, didn’t. Nothing in the water. I still let them out. Some didn’t want to fly. I had one die. The rest were as good as back to normal within 3 days. Nothing given afterwards either.
I don’t want to be keeping pigeons that haven’t got a good natural immunity. I never treat a sick pigeon, although rarely get one. They either recover or not.

[Devo1956]

Again Different veiws on this sublect, and so they should. At the end of the day, if they are your birds. You make the choice.

[Diamond Dave]

I'm no expert on it Chris. Infact it would be interesting to see how others cope with it. But I've had it for the last 3 years and it seems to be the norm around here where if you have young birds it is inevitable that you will get ybs.
I said the birds all deal with it differently and the one thing I can say is if they are stood on the floor listless facing a wall for any length of time it is kinder to move them on as sometimes its better to be cruel to be kind cos they are not gonna get thro it.

Do you vaccinate them with RP ?

To be honest Leon, I have never heard of RP
I would rather they get over it on their own
At the start of this season I moved on a good hen from my stock shed, the reason being was that for the last 3 years it has been her babies that have been hit the hardest by YBS ( the beauty of keeping good records.)

[Diamond Dave]

Don't be fooled by it tho Chris. You don't just hsve a bit of ybs - you either have it or you dont!!
It is an airborne virus so if one has it, they will all have it.
In my experience they all tend to handle it differently, some are not to badly affected and others are real bad and can die.
Imo Its not worth isolating any that are sick but better to let it go thro them.
Now I have seen the first signs I will keep mine in maybe for 2 weeks on a light feed or until they start being a bit more responsive.
I don't treat them for anything and those that can't get thro it on there own won't get through it!
It's not nice to see what they go through mate.

I agree with your approach on the whole Dave. As I’ve said before I don’t treat for anything, haven’t for years. Mine had it a few weeks ago. I changed nothing. Fed them normally. Those that wanted to eat did those that didn’t, didn’t. Nothing in the water. I still let them out. Some didn’t want to fly. I had one die. The rest were as good as back to normal within 3 days. Nothing given afterwards either.
I don’t want to be keeping pigeons that haven’t got a good natural immunity. I never treat a sick pigeon, although rarely get one. They either recover or not.

Great Andy,
To be honest, I'm fairly pleased to have got it now.
Last year, I got it quite severely in between the 2nd and 3rd week of racing. It took about 3 weeks to go through my birds so they only got the 2 first races and the last race.
It will obviously affect training this time round but they are already up to 18 miles so fingers crossed it won't be so severe.
I would still want to give them two clear weeks to get over it before putting them in a basket with other mrembers birds.
Yours appear to have a good immune system as they appear to be clear after 3 days but I suspect they could still be carrying the virus for some days after.
If we are to help new starters for the sake of their own birds and other members birds I would suggest that 2 weeks is the minimum time before mixing with other birds.

[Andy]

Don't be fooled by it tho Chris. You don't just hsve a bit of ybs - you either have it or you dont!!
It is an airborne virus so if one has it, they will all have it.
In my experience they all tend to handle it differently, some are not to badly affected and others are real bad and can die.
Imo Its not worth isolating any that are sick but better to let it go thro them.
Now I have seen the first signs I will keep mine in maybe for 2 weeks on a light feed or until they start being a bit more responsive.
I don't treat them for anything and those that can't get thro it on there own won't get through it!
It's not nice to see what they go through mate.

I agree with your approach on the whole Dave. As I’ve said before I don’t treat for anything, haven’t for years. Mine had it a few weeks ago. I changed nothing. Fed them normally. Those that wanted to eat did those that didn’t, didn’t. Nothing in the water. I still let them out. Some didn’t want to fly. I had one die. The rest were as good as back to normal within 3 days. Nothing given afterwards either.
I don’t want to be keeping pigeons that haven’t got a good natural immunity. I never treat a sick pigeon, although rarely get one. They either recover or not.

Great Andy,
To be honest, I'm fairly pleased to have got it now.
Last year, I got it quite severely in between the 2nd and 3rd week of racing. It took about 3 weeks to go through my birds so they only got the 2 first races and the last race.
It will obviously affect training this time round but they are already up to 18 miles so fingers crossed it won't be so severe.
I would still want to give them two clear weeks to get over it before putting them in a basket with other mrembers birds.
Yours appear to have a good immune system as they appear to be clear after 3 days but I suspect they could still be carrying the virus for some days after.
If we are to help new starters for the sake of their own birds and other members birds I would suggest that 2 weeks is the minimum time before mixing with other birds.

I can’t disagree with that Dave.

[Chris1978]

It makes you want to pack up but I love my pigeons so just going see how it goes all being well be on top in a few year my ambitions are

[Murray]

No no, you mustn't pack up. This is just one of those things that life puts in your way. It's part of the learning process.
The pigeons will get over it and have better immune system as a result and you will have learned some more.
It's not nice at all.
In a few weeks they'll be good as gold and you'll be making plans again.

[Diamond Dave]

Do you get it over there in oz murray?

[Murray]

Yes, well a similar thing, caused by a similar circovirus. The first year it appeared here about a decade ago it killed thousand of birds. Now if your pigeons are healthy they are off colour for a few days then come right. There is a vaccine for it now but I haven't done mine since the first year it arrived.
The trouble is race birds can carry it. Most strays seem to have it and because they've been vaccinated they look okay, get sent, fail, and end up staying in somewhere. Next thing that loft is full of sick pigeons.
Many of us have become a bit tougher on allowing strays in the loft now.

[Devo1956]

I have to say, we all have different views on any topic. But on this topic, i will always go with prevention. This sport requires healthy birds to compete in racing, If your birds are healthy, then you have a chance on winning a race. Or being at the top half of the sheet, this is or should be the main aim every week. And remember you are in a 365 day sport, so the health of the birds are paramount.

Prevention comes in all different forms in this sport, Dont train in bad weather, Feed a good quality food the is easy to digest. Making sure your loft is clean, and that plenty of fresh air entering the loft. Clean your drinkers and feeders, Vaccinations if used are recorded, these are just some of the things to help in prevention.