Hi
I have a flock of about 20 fantail doves and August 4th my husband and I drove a 100 miles to Birmingham to collect 4 doves so as to introduce some new blood. They were advertised on a website which appeared credible. When we arrived we found our contact outside of his house and the birds were in a cage, soaking wet and generally in a sorry state. I wasn’t able to see how or where the rest of the birds were kept and looking back I should have just walked away but as we had just driven all that way we didn’t. We immediately put them in with the rest of our birds and very quickly we found one of the new birds dead. During the next few days we lost two babies. We then went to the vet as one of my cocks was having real trouble breathing and most of the flock had very watery droppings. We were charged £80 and prescribed antibiotics for five days for canker. After a few days I noticed one of the new doves was holding his head at a funny angle. I separated it from the flock and caged it indoors. Then we lost another baby and more adult birds.. I then sent some samples off to a laboratory and await the results. I think however that it sounds like “young bird sickness” or PMV. Before we collected these birds all our birds were healthy. We have been keeping doves for 18 months and never had a moment’s trouble. While I await the results from the lab what would you suggest I do, vaccinate all my birds against PMV ? If so what type of syringes do I use and where do I get them from?

I attach a jpeg of one of my new birds it has developed curly feathers I read this is one of the signs of PMV

Debra

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hi debra,i,m no expert on this but its sounds like they have pmv not young bird sickness because your old ones are dying and YB sickness only effects young obviously.let us know how you get on and also if they have it you should report this person who you got them off. it might be a bit late now but i use parastop at the beginning of the season to prevent this happening to mine, like i said let us know sorry i could not be of more help ray

hi debra, sorry to hear of the problem you have....i think this man who sold you them needs to be named and shamed, and also reported to maybe the rspca???? or to someone as if these birds are in this sort of ill health you can imagine what his other birds are like.....hence him not letting you see his lofts etc. hope you get the problem sorted.....good luck.

Hi Ray I have only lost 1 adult bird all the rest have been under 15 weeks I am still waiting the test results I expect they have been delayed due to the bank holiday and the postal strike today. I nearly ordered Parastop today but decided to see if the results will be in the post tomorrow. Do you think it would be a good idea to give my doves Parastop once a year and when should I give it to them as they breed all year’s will be glad to find out what’s wrong .
Debra

Hi David I will email him when I have the test results all my dove were healthy so I think it must have come from the new birds. And for one of the new ones to just drop dead after a week they must have had something wrong with them.
Debra

give it to them at the beginning of the season then your YB,S when you put them over

When does the season start they all live in the same aviary and they breed all year round

i would seperate them if i was you,then pair them up in jan or feb,breed some off them then seperate them again,less stress on them they will become weak breeding all year round and prone to desease,s