UkPigeonRacing

@king not a fan of pax but I know plenty who use it we prefer the live culture more effective

Interesting hearing 2 sides of the bleach debate.
As most know, mine have just gotten over the dreaded y.bird sickness anyway.
It run its course for about 6 or 7 days and during that time I wanted to give them something to help them (without anti biotics) I gave a huge consideration to virkon s. We had a couple of guys on here a while ago that swore by the stuff (not specifically for Ybs) But I checked myself from doing so thinking that the birds were already struggling and giving them a bleach based product is only going to make it harder for them so I just stuck with the probiotic.
Upon these guys advice I did give it to my birds before racing started but wish I hadn't afterwards because it seemed to disturb their metabolism and caused so much mess it was like they all had young bird sickness anyway.
So it's a bit confusing when you have ppl saying don't even change the food in case you upset their metabolism then in another post ppl are saying its good to purge them once a week.
This assumes that the virkon treatment is to purge them or is there any other benefits...

@diamondave so we believe a very low amount once a week we use 5ml in 10 litres so very weak combined with vanrobaeys health balance daily and once a week live culture keeps them at that perfect stage of health and they keep issue free throughout the season like this, it's tried and tested and works very well for us! You are stripping any bad away before it becomes a issue and are replacing with good bacteria it never gets chance to get a hold of them, and means you can stay med free which is our main focus we are trying to avoid using treatments

Thanks for that Danny - that brings it all into perspective. It obviously works for you guys so thank you for sharing.
Can I ask if you still need to treat for worms, cocci and canker using this system.
So were you working for Barry Mac when he ran his first OLR......

@diamondave no Derek was my first boss at Premier stud in Yorkshire and then shaun mcdonough for 2 years but learned loads from him a very clever guy, but Barry was great my current boss is kerry melonby another fantastic fancier

@diamondave we worm canker and vaccinate but we try to avoid having to use antibiotics as much as possible

Do you mean like a Greek yoghurt, Danny? I give mine a plain Greek yoghurt, especially when they are breeding.

@murray yes as long as it contains live culture and no additives or sweetener

Yea, I've been doing that for years, after an old flyer told me that back in New Zealand.
I buy squeeze packs of natural Greek yoghurt for a dollar, about 50 pence UK. Lot of goodness for next to nothing.

The vircon s, i would use cleaning the drinkers. but also in a sprat bottle. I would spray all around the loft, it was one of the best products needed.