health alert

~HEALTH ALERT~
There is a virus called the "Circo virus", which is an an auto immune disease that pigeons can get! It mainly affects young birds, but can affect your whole colony of birds! When a bird contracts this virus the immune system is compromised,and many opportunistic diseases will then strike your birds. some of these diseases are Paro mixo virus, herpes simplex, encephalytis,and a host of others. There is no cure for this virus yet, it has to run it's course. Be sure that your birds are vacinated for pmv,and that will help! A lot of times birds
carrying the virus, and sent to one loft races will then infect all it's loft mates.Be very careful, as this is a very bad virus and can really set you back.

Prevenative Medicine

Before the race season be sure to treat your birds for canker, worms and cocci. Prevenative medicine I feel is the best for the birds as they will be stressed during the racing season,and can come up with alot of illneses.As far as antibiotics,I would not use them unless a veterinarian tells you to! Alot of bacteria are becoming resistant to most of our antibiotics that we have used for years. "Amprol" is a good choice for cocci treatment,and "Ridsol", is the best choice for canker treatment. Another thing I would recommend to everyone is to give your flyers,and breeders lots of picking stones. Either mix with your grit or give to them free choice. These picking blocks or pots are very rich in minerals that our birds do not get out of of there feed or on the ground. It can make a great deal of difference during the race season.


~THE RACE SEASON~

During the race season keep a good watch on the health of your birds! Make sure that you give the birds plenty of electrolytes,as they use alot of these salts up during an event! You can also buy electrolytes with vitamins,they are both good for the birds. Some flyers will just use gator aid in their waters. As this is full of electrolyte salts. If a bird comes home very late from an event, it is best to keep him or her by there self in a separate cage,and given electrolytes, and vitamins. This is a precaution in case the bird picked up some kind of bacteria or virus, from bad water they may have drank on their journey home.Some flyers give an antibacterial or viral medication to help prevent any contamination. Cleansing teas are also good for the birds, after they have recuperated from their flight......................................................................

i went to the verse laga meeting with wim boddaert( a belgiun vet who specialises and only deals with pigeons and has won many many many top honers. he mentioned this virus and he was asked the question is there a cure for this in the pipeline for the near future and the answer was .....NO ...and he does not expect a cure for some time . as far as i remember it boils down to funding as it is very very expensive coming up with theses cures . it was a little while ago but i do remember this being brought up. i found the whole evening fantastic and took a lot away from the evening so if there is another type thing held in your area i would strongly recomend that you attend it. a it was informative and its another meeting with your fellow pigeon fanciers from all over the place.

Gordon Chalmers and Frank Harper as well as few other people warned fanciers about this in the mid 90's. Calling it a Super Bug, or Super Virus. That was able to withstand treatments of conventional antibiotics.
They warned that the misuse of antibiotics in racing pigeons, were contributing to the poor natural immune systems.
This why they promoted the use of natural products to stimulate the building up of the birds natural immune system.
Because it's not actually the Circo Virus, that kills the birds. It's the secondary infections that follow.