Very interesting and reasuring viewpoint, a lot of sites i have been on recommend culling all chicks and both parents if they produce a french moult chick, something i am not prepared to do. Much prefer your keep calm and carry on approach:)
I learned a while back to NOT look at hobbiest chat sites. I get info from vets. Vets point out that there is no point in culling as the virus is so common among budgies you'll just pick it up again. instead focus on: good hygiene, dietary variety, eliminate parasites, and only breed seasonally, not year round, as a steady supply of chicks is the BEST way to strengthen the virus's hold on your flock. breeding seasonally means there are long periods with no chicks to catch and spread the virus and it goes dormant.
This is damn interesting! Would you consider making a video documenting the supportive measures used to assist in their recovery from the French Moult? I wonder if the antibody "collection/profile" present in the adult 'feeder's' crop milk offers any immunological benefit to the birds during the "chick" stage of their life? When looking at life in general, we seem to be forced to expend a great deal of effort - in order to make "life suck just a little bit less".... But we have no other alternative....
I'm not sure there's enough to say to make a whole video. I offered electrolytes off and on when I noticed diarrhea, and offered a wide variety of soft foods so when birds hit the anorexia stage they would be tempted to eat a little at least. it's just the kind of thing you'd do for a sick kid. they get over it themselves. as for regrowing feathers, just make sure they have lots of calcium, and a wide variety of veggies to go with their seed, and then it's a waiting game. will be interesting to see how many make a full recovery.
In an interview Bob Wilson said With some varieties of the FM you don't really see any symptoms when you add the bird to the flock, but it will cause that birds babies to have FM on the 1st breeding. The way around that variety is wait to breed them. Do the quarantine then after that wait for breeding for a few months on that bird, I think he said 2 or 3 but I'm not sure. Then after that the chicks won't get it. Or at least don't get the symptoms, just the immunity. I have noticed after reading about it that it seems like it's often the better bird flocks that get the most trouble. So perhaps it's an indicator that your bird quality is going up too.
well there's a silver lining. :) actually there is only one "variety" of the polyoma virus, but the variety of symptoms is a long and impressive list. it's all about how old the bird is when it encounters the virus, whether or not it got any immunities from it's parents, and what i's general state of health is when it is exposed. I ALWAYS quarantine my birds, extensively, including medicated quarantine. but I had never had french moult in my flock before so MOST of my birds, chicks and adults, got sick.
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Best video on the subject. Thank you for much for sharing and bringing hope.
This is so reassuring thankyou! Everything online is so confusing and I thought my budgies were goners!
Very interesting and reasuring viewpoint, a lot of sites i have been on recommend culling all chicks and both parents if they produce a french moult chick, something i am not prepared to do.
Much prefer your keep calm and carry on approach:)
I learned a while back to NOT look at hobbiest chat sites. I get info from vets. Vets point out that there is no point in culling as the virus is so common among budgies you'll just pick it up again. instead focus on: good hygiene, dietary variety, eliminate parasites, and only breed seasonally, not year round, as a steady supply of chicks is the BEST way to strengthen the virus's hold on your flock. breeding seasonally means there are long periods with no chicks to catch and spread the virus and it goes dormant.
This is damn interesting! Would you consider making a video documenting the supportive measures used to assist in their recovery from the French Moult? I wonder if the antibody "collection/profile" present in the adult 'feeder's' crop milk offers any immunological benefit to the birds during the "chick" stage of their life? When looking at life in general, we seem to be forced to expend a great deal of effort - in order to make "life suck just a little bit less".... But we have no other alternative....
I'm not sure there's enough to say to make a whole video. I offered electrolytes off and on when I noticed diarrhea, and offered a wide variety of soft foods so when birds hit the anorexia stage they would be tempted to eat a little at least. it's just the kind of thing you'd do for a sick kid. they get over it themselves. as for regrowing feathers, just make sure they have lots of calcium, and a wide variety of veggies to go with their seed, and then it's a waiting game. will be interesting to see how many make a full recovery.
In an interview Bob Wilson said With some varieties of the FM you don't really see any symptoms when you add the bird to the flock, but it will cause that birds babies to have FM on the 1st breeding. The way around that variety is wait to breed them. Do the quarantine then after that wait for breeding for a few months on that bird, I think he said 2 or 3 but I'm not sure. Then after that the chicks won't get it. Or at least don't get the symptoms, just the immunity. I have noticed after reading about it that it seems like it's often the better bird flocks that get the most trouble. So perhaps it's an indicator that your bird quality is going up too.
well there's a silver lining. :) actually there is only one "variety" of the polyoma virus, but the variety of symptoms is a long and impressive list. it's all about how old the bird is when it encounters the virus, whether or not it got any immunities from it's parents, and what i's general state of health is when it is exposed. I ALWAYS quarantine my birds, extensively, including medicated quarantine. but I had never had french moult in my flock before so MOST of my birds, chicks and adults, got sick.
I got rid of mine
got rid of the birds? or the french moult?