subject: Racing Pigeon Books - What To Do About Paratyphoid Fever [print this page] A pigeon fancier, Donald, had an outbreak of paratyphoid among his birds. He lost 12 pigeons to the illness and succeeded in curing only 3 of 26 survivors. He noticed the rest are suffering from a bizarre symptom, they are twisting their heads. He wrote and asked if this was typical.
If your pigeons are sick and you think they might be suffering from paratyphoid, check for the neck twisting. It is a sure indication that what your racing pigeons are suffering from is in fact, paratyphoid.
Unfortunately, pigeons can't be cured of paratyphoid once they have it. Your best defense is to vaccinate your young birds while they're still in the nest. So long as you race your pigeons with other people's birds, you can not prevent your birds from coming in contact with the ailment. Many people aren't scrupulous about vaccinating their little ones.
It is possible to clean your pigeon loft and disinfect it often, but it'll have limited effect as long as the individuals with whom you race don't frequently disinfect their lofts as well.
The biggest difficulty is the moment a pigeon has paratyphoid disease, it'll have it until it dies. They can also infect other birds. The sickness can remain dormant in a bird for a time but can be passed on to others via droppings. You will find there are definitely only two techniques to safeguard the rest of the pigeons if even one is infected. You should either quarantine the infected bird, or you can cull it. It is usually a difficult decision to make and I don't enjoy making it, but those are the facts.
