Vaccinations. Young birds.

Had a white pigeon come in this morning. Young bird. American. Checked the band. Originated from Louisiana, Charles Siegel. Went to his site. He sells meds and vaccines. Anyway, was reading about vaccines and came across this statement.

Jean-Louis Jorissen has told us that he would highly recommend NOT vaccinating young birds until they are at least three to four months old. The reason is to let the immune system develop without stressing it too early in life. So often within the last couple of years, I have gotten calls from fanciers who have just vaccinated their young birds, and all of a sudden their pigeons are all getting sick and dying. This is precisely what Jean-Louis is telling us. The immune system of those young birds was not developed enough to handle the vaccine and to be challenged by another viral infection, like Cercle or Adeno Virus.


Jorissen has also told us that it appears that fanciers who are waiting a little longer to vaccinate are having better results. We concur with that opinion, and that is the reason we have been letting our young birds stay as long as possible in a natural type of environment, with only a few supplements, but no medication. The weak ones eliminate themselves, and the strong ones, as nature would have it, survive, and when vaccinated, their immune systems are more highly developed and able to handle the pressure.


We feel the same way about medications. We only medicate for a specific problem, using a proper dosage for a long-enough duration to actually cure the pigeons, and then use only pro-biotics like Health Gard and Digestal or Pro-Digest to keep them at higher levels of health the rest of the year. Gone should be the days when fanciers use mild antibiotics like Terramycin or Sulmet two days every week of every month. That is disaster waiting to happen. Yet, we get many calls a year from fanciers telling us that this is precisely what they do.

halcanada wrote:

Had a white pigeon come in this morning. Young bird. American. Checked the band. Originated from Louisiana, Charles Siegel. Went to his site. He sells meds and vaccines. Anyway, was reading about vaccines and came across this statement.

Jean-Louis Jorissen has told us that he would highly recommend NOT vaccinating young birds until they are at least three to four months old. The reason is to let the immune system develop without stressing it too early in life. So often within the last couple of years, I have gotten calls from fanciers who have just vaccinated their young birds, and all of a sudden their pigeons are all getting sick and dying. This is precisely what Jean-Louis is telling us. The immune system of those young birds was not developed enough to handle the vaccine and to be challenged by another viral infection, like Cercle or Adeno Virus.


Jorissen has also told us that it appears that fanciers who are waiting a little longer to vaccinate are having better results. We concur with that opinion, and that is the reason we have been letting our young birds stay as long as possible in a natural type of environment, with only a few supplements, but no medication. The weak ones eliminate themselves, and the strong ones, as nature would have it, survive, and when vaccinated, their immune systems are more highly developed and able to handle the pressure.


We feel the same way about medications. We only medicate for a specific problem, using a proper dosage for a long-enough duration to actually cure the pigeons, and then use only pro-biotics like Health Gard and Digestal or Pro-Digest to keep them at higher levels of health the rest of the year. Gone should be the days when fanciers use mild antibiotics like Terramycin or Sulmet two days every week of every month. That is disaster waiting to happen. Yet, we get many calls a year from fanciers telling us that this is precisely what they do.

Interesting Hal. But basically one man's view on the subject etc. Will tell my mates thou, that give the first jab in the nest type of thing.

Did not post the whole article. Apparently 2 vets were in agreement. One out your way. Colin Walker?

strange colombovac advise to vaccinate at 6 weeks I have found the reverse ie guys who wait to long to vaccinate get the troubles ...always vaccinate at 1 month old never had any bother ...if ybs go down after vaccination then theirs a underlying problem imo

Has been a lot of years since I last vaccinated. About 15. Never had a problem. Of course, different area and different circumstances. Open loft, not much pigeon pressure etc,.

Clarification. Very many years ago I was the person clubs contacted to vaccinate the members pigeons. Obviously did my own also at the time. Why me? Well, managing a 1000 sow herd with litters weaning 10 per sow at 2.3 times a year, all had to be vaccinated for various potential viruses, at least 3 times. However, showed the clubs how to vaccinate etc, and got out of it. Too time consuming.
Now. As previously stated, open loft here basically. Have mentioned feral pigeons entering the loft. Virus carriers etc,. Two days ago had a young feral pigeon get in the young bird/old bird loft. Threw it out. Again yesterday. Loft closed up, no pigeon of mine could enter. Today did an inventory. Little bugger was in there again. Threw it out again. Very fast, has street smarts. Tonight it was in the aviary/trapping portion. Could not enter the loft had the flap closed aviary to loft. That little bugger squeezed through dowels about 2 inches apart! Let it out again. Dark now. It is not there. To get to the point of this ramble. If it gets back in tomorrow it can stay. It is very smart! I assume it will be in. First thoughts are to pull the head. But wait up. Can it contribute anything? Who can tell? So made up my mind. It can stay. Many scenarios could occur. All my birds get sick and die. A few weak ones maybe. Strengthen the immunity of the birds? Make them smarter? Maybe. All goes well breed off it? Will find out. I am curious!! Heck I need to experiment. Won enough in the past to not worry about it anymore. Yes, I am sound in mind and body! Ahem..take that with a pinch of salt.....

Pic of Fearless Freddie.

halcanada wrote:

Did not post the whole article. Apparently 2 vets were in agreement. One out your way. Colin Walker?

What would need more than that Hal to impress me etc . CW, may be god like to some but not this little .  

I do not know a vet that I would trust 100%. Be it pigeons, dogs, pigs or any other livestock. When this herd of sows etc was shut down we shipped all the pigs. Few thousand. The government grant for shutting down to stabilize hog prices stipulated that a vet would supervise the killing of the boars. Genetic pool here. Vet came. Younger fellow. Assistant trainee with him. Young female. I asked him how was he going to do it. Said you snare the nose hang on. No tranquilizer. Did so. He went from the bottom up in to the heart and injected. After 5 minutes of hanging on to a 500lb boar he died. Had 6 more to go. Told him this is bullshit! Boars are suffering too long. Said he was just using a half dose to save the company money. Why it took so long. went out to the office. Came back with a Enfield 303. Old rifle. I snared the next boar. Attached the snare to a holding point. As soon as he injected I shot the boar between the eyes. Dead in seconds. He was going to protest but did not. Others went the same way. Guy loved to prolong death apparently. That episode still leaves a bad taste in my mouth.