Young Bird Disease

Dr. Steve Weir

Every pigeon flyer – if they have been flying very long – has dealt with what many fanciers call "young bird disease" or "young bird sickness." During training or race season youngsters will start feeling bad, often they lose their appetites, some will have diarrhea or vomiting, and in general do very poorly. Some fanciers even have various levels of losses from death – or excessive losses during training. Since I am one of the few veterinarians that races pigeons I am inundated with calls during the young bird season. I often receive birds or droppings in the mail daily. My technicians never know what they might find in an envelope or box! In any event, every fancier would love to have healthy young birds and never have to deal with young bird sickness.

As fanciers you need to recognize several factors that contribute to young bird health problems. There are many things that lead to stress in our youngsters which in turn makes them very susceptible to disease.

1. Young birds are growing fast! It takes a lot of energy for them to mature which produces some degree of stress for them.
2. Molting is another major stress. As they are trying to make feathers and grow at the same time – more stress is induced.
3. Training is a major stress as race season nears. Many fanciers train almost daily during the week which works good to get them in shape but again causes stress.
4. The way we trade around birds today. With the post office making shipping easy and all of the futurities that are available, many fanciers are importing a lot of bugs into their loft from other fanciers that they didn’t have before. This includes viruses, bacteria, and various parasites. When you bring in a lot of bugs that your birds aren’t immune to – disease is a possibility – in fact a probability.
5. Overcrowding is common in young birds. Everyone wants to try a few more matings or some pigeons from their friends – but crowded birds are stressed birds, which leads to disease.
6. Overmedication is a common problem you most pigeon flyers. At the first hint of any problem many fanciers treat everyone with baytril. If that doesn’t work they move on to other various antibiotics. Eventually, when they have had several die and none of their drugs worked they start getting worried and call. Remember, indiscriminate use of antibiotics can really cause problems. They kill the natural flora (normal bacteria in the gut) and really add stress to our birds.

In short – if you add all of this up and you have a great recipe for sick pigeons.

So what causes young bird disease or sickness? Well, as I have evaluated virtually hundreds of lofts with "young bird sickness" over the years I can tell you unequivocally that there is not one cause of this problem. There are a group of disease issues that often add up to trouble in a loft, but each loft is different. The following are common things I see:

1. Parasite issues: It amazes me how many youngsters I evaluate because they are sick and those youngsters are absolutely loaded with canker, coccidia, and worms. These parasites really pull down your youngsters and predispose them to other viral and bacterial diseases.
2. Viral issues: I commonly find Circovirus which affects young bird teams. It typically affects 10 – 15% of the birds and they will go light and die no matter what you do. That virus effectively kills the immune system and youngsters just cannot fight off any infection. Fortunately, this virus usually shows up for one year only in a given loft and is not a recurrent problem. Adenovirus is commonly incriminated by pigeon fanciers as causing problems in their youngsters. I rarely find it. It is out there but not common at all. When present it causes an inflammation of the liver and gut. Youngsters will have diarrhea and some vomiting. In a loft of youngsters, all of them will have loose droppings, 10% will act sick, and only 5% will die. If you are losing more birds than that you have something else on board. Paramyxovirus shows up occasionally in lofts who choose not to vaccinate or use LaSota vaccine. Very watery droppings (puddles of water on the perches) are common and some birds develop neurological signs. Herpes virus is a bug that typically causes respiratory disease in youngsters. A small percentage, however, will develop liver and GI tract disease and die.
3. Bacterial issues: This is a common part of the young bird sickness problem. A bacteria called E. coli is often a complicating organism secondary to stress, parasites, or viruses, and on occasion can cause disease all by itself. In youngsters the primary sign is intestinal. Youngsters will vomit grain that you will find on the perches, have diarrhea, and develop very slow crop emptying (A youngster’s crop should be empty in the morning before eating – if your youngsters have crops with some food in them in the morning you have an intestinal problem slowing things down). We treat this with an appropriate antibiotic based on culture and sensitivity. In some cases we even have to make a vaccine for certain lofts to control the problem.

As you can see – young bird sickness would better be called "young bird sickness complex" since so many factors play into the problem. Each cause of "young bird sickness complex" must be treated differently if you are going to be successful in solving the problem.

So, what can you do to try and not have a problem? The following are important:

1. Raise early youngsters and get them through the molt before you start training hard before the races. If you can reduce the stresses of molting and growing by raising early youngsters you will be ahead of the game. This is also helpful in motivating your youngster – they will be sexually mature – and we all know that sex is a great motivator!
2. Good husbandry – a clean and dry loft that is not overcrowded goes a long way in helping. This seems simplistic but you guys don’t do it!
3. Vaccinate for the bugs you can vaccinate for – and don’t use LaSota for PMV!
4. Control parasites – have throat swabs and fecals checked for parasites and treat when they are present. Don’t just treat – especially for canker – and assume you are home free – I see drug resistant canker that you can’t kill with the usual drugs at any dose! I tested a new product from Europe called Berimax that Ed at Siegel is supposed to be getting in the country soon – it works great. Be sure and use it at the proper dose for 5 days.
5. BE CAREFUL about bringing in birds from all over the country – YOU WILL IMPORT EVERY DISEASE. If you do that – like a futurity loft – you must vaccinate for everything, treat for parasites, and watch for sick birds like a hawk.
6. When you get a sick pigeon(s) try and get some help in diagnosing the real problem before you shotgun treat them with every drug in the book. You are wasting drugs, money, and in some cases are making things worse.

Hopefully this article will give you a little insight on how to deal with "young bird sickness complex." It can be handled and proper husbandry techniques can go a long way in preventing the problem. Good flying.