Here we go again

Flame seemed to be back to normal for three days and we thought the crisis had passed.

It was very upsetting to see the next day that Flame had her eye closed again and was back to sitting with her head under her wing.

We decided to give Flame the eye drops again until I could talk to the vet. On picking her up to give her the eye drops we saw for the first time that she had bubbles in her right eye.

I knew exactly what that meant. Anybody who knows my history will know that I have had years of battling with the dreaded mycoplasma. It came into my flock with the first two seramas I had, from a breeder that stopped breeding that year, I might add.

It hasn’t shown itself for a few years now and I thought we were passed this. I still have some tylan in stock that is still in date until next March so I decided that I would start treating the whole flock straight away. There is no point in giving any more eye drops.

I dissolve one teaspoon of tylan in one litre of water and put it in the chicken drinker. A new batch needs to be mixed each day and it needs to be given for five days.

Tylan has always been the only thing that has ever worked for me and as well as treating Flame it will protect the rest of the flock.

By the following day Flame was already looking back to normal with her eye open and clear. Over the next few days she has looked perkier and seems her normal self once more.

Thank goodness I still had some tylan in stock although there is not much left now.

Myco never goes away once it’s in the flock but can be controlled with tylan. We haven’t had a problem for a few years but it can recur at times of stress.

I worm the flock twice a year in March and September. I wormed the flock in March once the three newer girls were integrated and found no worms. However I bought Dot into the flock in May and it hadn’t occurred to me until now that she hadn’t been wormed.

I found worms in the poop recently and wormed the flock again. Seven consecutive days of flubenvet in dishes of mash is the way that I always worm the flock. Once they were a few days in on the flubenvet I found worms in Flame’s poop.

I think that Flame having worms may have been the stress factor that sparked the myco. I am really hoping that the treatment will get Flame back to normal and will keep the rest of the flock free of it.

I had hoped never to see this again but it proves that it never entirely goes away and I need to always remain vigilant.

I was thrown by the fact that Flame is an older girl and when she was sitting dozing more often I put it down to feeling her age rather than a possibility of worms, especially as I had wormed the flock in March.

With only one eye closing and remaining clear when open this caused me to discount myco. I am only relieved that I spotted both issues in time to act on them.

I am hopeful that the flock will be okay and we will come through this again. It is always something that I dread.