Respiratory
Respiratory disease in racing pigeons is possibly the number one deterrent of super form. With a mild case of respiratory your birds will be five to ten minutes behind in a 100 km race and possibly twenty to thirty minutes behind in a 250 km race. Of course once you factor in some adverse weather such as a headwind or rain then these numbers is only accentuated. Suffice to say that fanciers need to keep this scourge at bay at all times especially when the entire race program is probably no more than nine to ten weeks in length.
I have had the opportunity to visit many lofts throughout Canada, United States, Holland, France, England and Belgium and with very few exceptions they all treat for respiratory. Synonymous with respiratory is trichomaniosis (canker). Tricho seems to live in a symbiotic relationship with respiratory as one feeds on the other. Once tricho gets a hold then the door is open for all kinds of secondary problems especially respiratory. This is why it is very important that each time you treat for respiratory that you also include a treatment for tricho (canker). There are at least twenty-six different strains of tricho that exist in pigeons and unfortunately no one drug will treat them all. This is why it is important that you alter the different drugs that you use. Emtryl, Ridzol, Flagyl and Carnidzol are the different types of drugs that will be most effective. It is most important that you rotate treatments because they go after different strains of Tricho.
Approximately three to four weeks prior to the first race I will put the race team on a ten day respiratory treatment which will include a drug for tricho. Sometimes you will get a year where the birds are flying one to two hours by themselves and you wonder if there is a need for the treatment. In this case I would say that at the very least give them a seven day treatment with an anti- tricho drug. In a conversation with Dutch fancier Ad Scharlaekens ( one of the best) he feels that the anti-tricho drugs that we use especially Ridzol have no ill effects on the form of the pigeons if they are administered properly. ( Be careful with Emtryl, do not overdose--1 tspn per gallon ) Therefore they can be used without hindering the form of the racers. During the racing season I will monitor the team very carefully and check throats periodically for any signs of irritation, slime or redness. If there is a problem I will treat for three days beginning with either the Sunday morning after the race or in the case of a short race I will begin on Saturday that the birds return. First they will receive water with electrolytes for a few hours and then before their evening feed they will have treated water. The following are some of the medications that I have found to be effective.
Doxycycline 1 tspn per gallon
Tylosin " " "
Aeromycin 1 tspn per gallon
Gallimycin " " " "
Spiramycin ( Suanovil) 1 tspn per gallon
Tylosin 1 tspn per gallon
LS50 " " " "
Amoxicillin " " " " or 6-8 capsules in a gallon ( 250 mg)
Keep in mind that these medications should be mixed with water that has been allowed to sit for at least 24 hours to give the chlorine a chance to dissipate otherwise you lose the potency.
If you have a problem then these medications will have to be increased and two medications may need to be mixed together to effectively eradicate the problem. An example would be if you were certain that you had a respiratory problem then you could mix
2 tspns of Tylosin and 2 teaspoons of Doxycycline with one tspn of Ridzol. These two medications seem to work well together. Many pigeon products that are out on the market to-day are merely a combination of two or more of these drugs in combination with an anti-tricho drug so I would suggest for you to use your own and then you will know exactly what you are treating with for the next time. Ideally, in a perfect situation you would swab the throat of a pigeon and then have it cultured and run a sensitivity test on the culture to see which antibiotic is most effective. Unfortunately you do not have this time frame and therefore you generally need to act quickly in order to salvage whatever weeks you have left. Perhaps an anecdotal story might be of some value. A fancier in our club was doing very poorly and yet he knew the birds were capable of better results. He treated them one week with Tylosin and Emtryl. The results were the same. He was ready to give up for the season and we discussed trying a different antibiotic. He decided to use gallimycin ( erythromycin) with Ridzol and that week he was back on top. This antibiotic worked on the particular bacteria that his birds had at the time. There is a new product out which blends four of the above medications together and is sold by one of the largest pigeon supply houses. They are obviously operating on the theory that the more varied the antibiotics the better the chances are that you will eradicate the bacteria. This is perhaps overkill but I would not be surprised to find that they sell a lot of this combination.
When I am treating I normally make perhaps one-half gallon or less and then tip my drinkers so that I am not wasting the medication.
Always follow-up your medications with vitamins and Brewers Yeast on the feed to replace the friendly gut bacteria. A good idea is to use it for about three or four days which should be sufficient. Dr. G. Chalmers suggests that you can use plain yogurt which has worked well for me also.
Young Bird Dark System
I am putting this in point form which may be easier to use for a reference:
You can put the birds on the dark system at any time, any age whether they have moulted one or two flights it doesn't matter.
One of the top fliers last year put his birds on the system after they had moulted their first three flights and he had a tremendous season. There are no hard and fast rules. The only limitations are the one's that you put on yourself.
Very important that you put half or less than half of the normal number of birds into a darkened section. Example --I have a 4 x 8 section with three aviaries that I flew 18 young birds from on the natural system, but now that I have darkened this section I put in 8 or 9 young birds. More than this number and you run the risk of respiratory.
*****Re-read the above as it is one of the deadly sins.*******This is probably the biggest reason for losing darkened young birds ( respiratory). Young birds will not be able to orientate properly and quickly if their respiratory tracts are not clear. As Ad Scharlaekens says," The heads must be clear and the throats pink."
The young birds need about eight hours of light. I have seen many lofts that were darkened by cardboard --it doesn't matter as long as it is functional--even a dark cloth will work. You will be able to tell after about fourteen days because there should be by then a lot of body down feathers on the floor. They start with the chest and head first and then proceed to the small body feathers on the wing.
As I said the young birds for the dark system could be born in Jan., Feb., March, April it does not matter. Just keep the young birds about the same age so that you do not run into problems. Don't put a just weaned young bird with those that are already flying. You will need a few sections to do this but it works much better.
If you can not be home to open the window, aviary, cardboard etc. then a simple light on a timer will do until you get home. Set the light to go on at 12 noon and then when you get home from work you can open the loft up and then re-darken them about eight. Similarly you could have the light come on at 1 p.m. in the afternoon and then darken again at 9 or so. There are no hard and fast rules.****** Important*** When you hook up the light to a timer also include a bathroom ceiling fan which will circulate the air until you get home. It is a life saver and keeps respiratory at bay if you have kept your numbers down in the young bird loft. If you are going out of town for a few days just leave the loft open and do not darken them it will not harm them. They will not start to moult. When it gets very warm, humid I will put mine on natural light in order to give them the air flow they need.
About one month before you race your young birds take them out of the dark and put them on natural light. If you have more than one section on the dark then I would suggest staggering the sections. For some birds it takes a month for them to start to moult. Others may have moulted a flight or two in the dark. Some take seven to eight weeks until they start to moult their flights. You have to see what time is best for you. Our season for young birds lasts about eleven weeks so you do not want them moulting too quickly.
************Remember when the days are getting shorter in July put the lights on at night until 9 o'clock and in this way they will even hold their flights a little longer. Especially into September keep the lights on. ************ Our big Futurity races are held at the end of August and therefore that is when you want the young birds to shine.