Care of Von Russell Farm Peafowl

Housing

We house our peafowl in pens constructed of t-posts, one-inch chicken wire sides and two-inch chicken wire tops. In placing the pens we have taken advantage of the numerous shade trees on the North side of the property; shade is important, even in the Piney Woods of Northeast Texas. We provide roosts in each pen, young cedar posts roughly 6 inches in diameter. We are planting native shrubs, such as Yaupon Holly, in each pen and around the perimeter of the pens to provide cover and comfort for the birds.

In colder climates peafowl need additional shelter, sometimes including a weatherproof structure and auxiliary heat.
 

Feed

Our feed program includes scratch grain with oyster shell added and laying crumble in separate feeders. We experiment with various additives including diatomaceous earth (worm control), crushed crab shell and seaweed (added nutritive value). We find that by increasing the protein in the laying crumble our juveniles grow stronger and our hens lay better. We offer the birds a variety of greens and fruit in small amounts. We discovered that the birds love lentil sprouts -- now we need to come up with a method of sprouting pounds of lentils at one time!

During periods of cold weather peafowl prefer a higher percentage of grain feed which is high in carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are what a bird uses to produce body heat.
 

Veterinary Care, At-Home Health Care

Peafowl are prone to illness, more so than chickens and other fowl. Our medicine cabinet is well stocked with a wide range of antibiotics and other medications including Tylan 50, LA 200, Ivomec injectable, Panacur, Terramycin powder and Corid. We have built a good relationship with our local veterinarian and with the Texas Veterinary Medicine Diagnostic Lab at Texas A&M. Most Agriculture Extension Programs in each state provide information for people interested in raising various types of fowl including peafowl. Other sources of good information on care are colleges and universities.

Chronic Respiratory Disease/Mycoplasmosis (link)

We'll be posting more info about CRD and the treatment we use for it, in the meantime here's the photo of the sinus injection (Tylan 50)


  The reason I am writing this is to help people who are new to peafowl and do not know what to do if their birds get sick.  A lot of the time your local veterinarian is little to no help.  My vet is great with dogs, cats, cows, horses,  etc. etc. but he is not experienced in avian diseases.  So often you are left on your own or what information you can get off the Internet through forums and such.  The problem with this is that you will sometimes get so many different opinions you are still left not knowing what to do.

  Another reason I am writing this is because of all of the threads I have been reading on forums were people say the only way to treat the problem is with an aggressive antibiotic treatment.  I won't begin to say that I don't use them, I do.  My medicine cabinet is an old glass-door gun cabinet that I put seven shelves in (plus the bottom drawer) and they are all full.  I keep medicine and supplies for all types of farm animals.

  The number one problem I hear from people who have peafowl is: " my birds eye is all swollen up."  I am not one who likes to treat a problem without knowing what I am treating for, but with peafowl that already have their eyes swollen shut, time may be short.  By the time you have a culture run, it may be two to three days, especially if you live in the country.  Three days may be too late.  I have seen birds that where their eyes swollen so bad could not see within 48 hours of the first symptoms.  The majority of the time you have this problem in peafowl, it is Mycoplasmosis, with a possible secondary infection of E. coli  The best cure for Mycoplasmosis is prevention, keeping the birds' pens clean and the birds healthy.  If your bird is already sick, prevention is no longer an option.  The best antibiotic I have found for the treatment of Mycoplasmosis is Tylan 50.  Tylan 50 is also the antibiotic recommended by Dr. Wigle, director of the Texas Animal Diagnostic Laboratory (Avian Department) of Texas A&M University.  A&M also does all of the mandatory testing by the State of Texas for Pullorum and Typhoid. 

  In talking with Dr. Wigle he suggested using Tylan 50 but not injecting into the breast or other muscle but rather injecting into the sinus cavity.  In this way, you are putting the antibiotic were it is the most helpful.  Mycoplasmosis is a respiratory disease after all.  Tylan has one drawback, it breaks down the muscle tissue were it is injected, one more reason for injecting into the sinus cavity.  The breakdown in breast tissue is degenerative, it does not build back.   Knowing that peafowl live to be 30 years and older, if they are given shots of Tylan every couple of years, there can be a real problem with repeated breast injections.  I have read threads on message boards from individuals who say you must give a shot every day for three days and you must use Tylan 200 and because it is stronger, it cures the problem with less damage.  Wrong, four times as strong, four times the damage and with one shot of Tylan 50 to the sinus cavity there is no need for more shots. 

  If I do have a bird that comes down with Mycoplasmosis, I will use up to 1 cc of Tylan 50 injected into the sines cavity, wait two days and give another shot if necessary.  Not long ago I noticed an Opal Spalding that was making a gurgling sound.  When I caught him up I discovered he did have a respiratory problem, not bad, but noticeable.  I gave him 1/4 cc Tylan 50 and when I caught him again in two days, he had no more symptoms.  1/4 cc of Tylan 50 is 1/48 the recommended dosage of the person on the message board and 1/128 the recommended dosage given by a local vet.  (There is a local vet near me who says that birds have a very high metabolism and recommends giving three to four shots a day, for a couple of days.)  That's quite a bit of difference in medicine, and because I didn't give the shot in the muscle, there is no lasting damage.

  Terramycin is also somewhat effective if you catch the disease in the early stages.  If you are treating very young birds in the early stages it can be very effective, but there is another problem.  In talking with Dr. Wigle through the years I have found out that one of the main causes of death in birds sent to A&M for necropsy is starvation.  Not because they did not eat, but from their inability to digest there food because of the overuse of antibiotics.  The problem is antibiotics kills all kinds of bacteria, good and bad.  Birds ( and humans ) have all kinds of bacteria in their digestive tracts that help them digest food.

  It is important to understand that antibiotics are not a cure-all.  The more you use, the less the bird relies on it's natural immune system.  Bacterium mutate all the time.  There are a lot of bacteria that are no longer treatable with antibiotics, because of their overuse.

  If you have a peafowl with a swollen eye or a gurgling in there lungs, it is usually Mycoplasmosis but if you do a culture on fluids coming from the eyes the first test that come back may be E. coli, a secondary disease.  If you take care of the Mycoplasmosis the birds natural immune system will usually take care of the E. coli  On one occasion a friend brought me a bird that was so sick he could not see from either eye and was starting to stumble when he walked.  I gave the bird 1cc of Tylan 50 in the sinus cavity and 1cc of Gentamicin in the muscle ( for E. coli ) for two days and on the third day you could barely tell the bird had ever been sick.  So you see I do use antibiotics and on some occasions I have even doubled up on them.  In the end what I am trying to say is to use antibiotics only when necessary and only for as long as necessary. 

 

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02/10/07