In order for a lofy to win consistantly in tough competition four things are required:
1. Good birds - the best you can obtain.
2. Fit birds - must be well conditioned.
3. Motivated birds - they must want to come home fast.
4. Healthy birds - the most important.
The reason that health is most important is that you can spend a fortune on pigeons, you can train their feathers off, you can fly natural, widowhood, double widowhood, lesbian hens etc., but if they aren't healthy, you are going to be beaten. Poor health is the greatest equalizer in pigeon racing.
So if we assume that healthy pigeons win races, what do we mean by healthy pigeons? When I say healthy pigeons I mean more than birds that look good, act good, fly around the loft well, have white wattles, have clear eyes, and normal droppings.Why? because a bird can fit the description that I just gave and not be healthy enough to win a big competition.
It is a bird's natural instinct to look healthy even when not. It is the sick bird that the predator gets in the wild and our pigeons maintain that instinct to act healthy even when not. We have all entered the loft to see a bird sitting on the floor all fluffed up that we thought was healthy the day before. Upon examining, the bird is as light as a feather. It didn't happen overnight. That bird had been slowly losing weight but trying to look healthy.
It is critical that we understand that there are three levels of pigeon health:
POOR HEALTH - this is when birds are sick and act sick. It is easy to see and birds obviously will not perform in this group.
APPARENT HEALTH - this is where we have birds that are apparently healthy in every way but are infected with various organisms that reduce performance. This is where the vast majority of fanciers keep their birds today.
SUPER HEALTH - this is the elusive goal that all of us should strive for. It is the level that the top lofts who win year in and year out maintain in their birds.
Stress is what causes a reduction in health and thus a reduction in performance. What things stress our birds? - Training, breeding, racing, molting, disease, parasites, husbandry problems etc. As we keep in mind the goal of keeping our birds in super health so that they can give us super performance, we need to look at four specific areas. As we look at these areas, remember that we are seeking to reduce stress on our birds so that they can reach that super health. The four areas are: loft hygiene and design; specific diseases; using a vet; and a realistic health programme.
LOFT HYGIENE & DESIGN
This is a very critical but highly overlooked area as far as reducing stress on our birds.Many people could greatly enhance their performance by simply doing some minor remodeling.
Ventilation: This is an extremely critical area. A pigeon's lungs are connected to air sacs which go throughout their body and even into their bones. Anything a pigeon breathes will greatly affect it. If your loft is full of dust, ammonia fumes from wet droppings, etc. you can expect your performance to decrease. Ideally, air should enter from the floor and exit at the top. You do not want a breeze blowing through the loft at the other extreme. One way to greatly help you in the area of ventilation - especially as you try to balance it with temperature control is to not OVERCROWD your birds. You can keep a much tighter loft and thus control your temperature if you don't have too many pigeons.
Droppings: In short, scrape the loft daily. When a pigeon has coccidia or worms, these organisms are passed in the droppings. They are not, however, infective at that point. They have to sit around for 48 hours or so before they will reinfect a pigeon when eaten. If you scrape daily you will greatly reduce the reinfection rate in your birds with coccidia and worms. You will also reduce problems with bacterial diseases like E.coli.
Moisture: Moisture is the fancier's greatest enemy when it comes to health. Moisture greatly increases the viability of parasites, bacteria, and viruses. It is critical that you do not allow rain to enter the loft, drinkers to leak, etc. You must also be careful with wire floors if they are open to the ground. In some cases this allows a lot of dampness into the loft which will spell disaster with your birds' health. Building a wooden subfloor underneath the wire will help in this area. The best floor litter I have ever seen as far as dryness was suggested to me by Gunnar Guttormson. He uses compressed wood pellets that are sold as fuel for wood stoves. They absorb a tremendous amount of moisture and will keep your loft bone dry. Heaters or heated floors also aid greatly in moisture control - especially in winter.
Food & water: Three things to remember - clean, clean, clean. The easiest was for birds to become infected with disease causing organisms is via soiled food or water. Thououghly clean and sterilize your drinkers at least weekly.
Rodent control: Mice carry paratyphoid - the disease caused by salmonella. You must keep them out of the loft.
Temperature control: Big temperature fluctuations will kill form in young birds by the stress they cause. Closing up the loft at night and on cold days - especially during race season - is critical for top performance. Some form of heat is also extremely helpful to reach and maintain that super health needed to win in big competitions.
Insect control: Several types of worms are carried by insects. Be careful about letting birds have an open loft where they can eat insects.
Overcrowding: Simply don't do it. Many people have had their best young bird season ever after a major smash in training left them with only a third of their original team. The less birds you have the less disease you will have and the easier and cheaper it is to take care of them. You should be like the marines - "You only want a few good ones".
Quarantine: Remember, many birds carry bad bugs and look healthy. All new pigeons should be wormed, treated for canker and coccidia, and placed on ten days of Baytril or Cipro to get rid of salmonella BEFORE they are put in with the rest of your pigeons.
SPECIFIC DISEASES
This is not an all-inclusive list, but it discusses those that a fancier MUST CONTROL to be successful during the race season.
Pigeon Pox: Pox is a viral disease that is very common in young birds. Most fanciers are very familiar with what it looks like. It produces raised, yellow, scabby lesions usually on the featherless parts of the body such as beak, legs, and eye cere. It also can be in the mouth. These lesions are firmly attached to the skin and hard to peel off. when exposed the birds will develop a fever and feel a little off before they break out with lesions. If you get it in your young birds just before or during the season you will have major problems with performance. It is recommended that you vaccinate against it, at least six weeks before race season or training.
Paramyxovirus: PMV can be a devastating disease in your loft if you don't vaccinate. The virus produces two sets of symptoms. One, it causes inflammation of the kidneys so infected pigeons will produce excessive urine. Instead of the white portion of the dropping you will get a pool of water around the fecal portion on the perch. The birds will drink a lot to keep up with the urine production and your loft will be very wet. Two, it causes neurological signs such as lameness, drooped wings, twisted necks, inability to fly, etc. You cannot treat PMV once you have it and the only way not to get it is to vaccinate. If you have an outbreak because you did not vaccinate, do so immediately and give supportive care. Most birds will recover - even race again - if they can eat and drink. You may have to hand-feed and water them, but it is worth it, if it is a good pigeon.
Paratyphoid: Salmonella causes the disease paratyphoid in pigeons. It is a bacterial infection that causes a multitude of possible symptoms, including sudden death of apparently healthy pigeons of any age, Joint infections causing a dropped wing or lameness, infertility, diarrhea, weight loss etc. This is a treatable disease and is best treated with Baytril (250mg per gallon). Baytril has been shown to get rid of the carrier state of salmonella so you no longer must destroy infected birds. Remember not to use it while breeding and raising babies. Vaccination is available and is a good idea, especially if you have had a problem with the disease before. The vaccine contains an immune stimulant and seems to really give birds a boost of great health when used about 3 to 4 weeks before the race season. This disease is carried by rodents so you must keep them out of your loft to prevent possible infection in your birds.
E.coli: This is a bacteria related to Salmonella and produces the exact same symptoms. It is much more common than salmonella and probably a lot of what people are diagnosing as salmonella, based on symptoms alone. You treat E.coli with antibiotics but you should have a culture and sensitivity run before you treat, as this bug varies a lot in what drug kills it best. E.coli is a big secondary invader and birds that are stressed with worms, coccidia, canker and other problems, tend to be much more susceptible to it. If you have had E.coli problems in the past it is critical that you control all other disease problems to keep it from recurring.
Worms: Pigeons get a lot of different worms including roundworms, capillaria, tetrameres and tapeworm.Ivermectin is the drug of choice for all but tapeworms, for which we use droncit (a quarter cat pill per bird). Ivermectin at the rate of one-tenth of a cc per bird, orally. Remember, you must scrape the loft daily to prevent reinfection after you worm. The wormer only kills what is in them at the time, and doesn't prevent your birds from becoming reinfected again.
THE BIG FOUR
The following four account for 95% of the poor performance in racing lofts that is related to health.
Ornithose complex: This is probably the most common cause of poor performance related to health. I am not talking about overt respiratory disease where the pigeons are coughing, sneezing, blowing snot on the walls, etc. but SUBCLINICAL DISEASE. remember, a birds respiratory system is integrated into its entire body. Any level of infection will greatly hamper performance.
In most birds the only signs of mild subclinical infection you will see are: (a) an excess of tears in the eye. When you press on the wattle you will see bubbles form in the corner of the eye. (b) When you put the bird's beak next to your ear you will hear a distinct "puff" each time it breathes. A bird that is not excited should hardly any sound when it breathes. You should treat your birds for respiratory infection for ten days before the season starts and three days at the 1st of each week during the race season. My favourite drug combination is Tylan (2,500gm to a gallon) and Doxycycline (750mg to a gallon).
Coccidiosis: Coccidia is another problem that will really hurt performance. I maintain you should treat your birds if you have any level of infection. This differs from some of the European vets that treat only if you get a large number of the bug on a fecal check. I disagree for three reasons: 1. Coccidia is shed in cycles - one day there will be a lot in a bird's fecal and the next day very few - you can get fooled from day to day. 2. Individual birds vary immensely in their level of infection. Unless you are going to check each and every bird you will miss some with large numbers. 3. If you have any coccidia, as the stress of training and racing goes on you will soon have a lot. You should treat it and keep it under control.
Remember, Coccidia is not infective when it is first passed in the droppings. It has to sit around for a couple of days. So, scrape your loft every day and you should have a minimal coccidia problem.
Canker: Canker is caused by the one-celled organism that is called trichomonas. Any level of infection will really hurt performance. You should treat before the season and then every second week during racing. You cannot rely on looking for the typical canker lesion of "cheese" in the mouth - you can only diagnose it with throat swabs by a vet. Emtryl and Ridsol are commonly used, but it is critical to make sure the drug you are using is working - we are seeing resistance to Emtryl and Ridzol. Flagyl is also used effectively.
Haemoproteus: This is a blood parasite that is transmitted from bird to bird by pigeon flies. It will cause anemia and very poor performance. Treat for two weeks before the season and two days during the week each week of the racing season. Use atabrine at 200mg to the gallon.
The only way to know if you have coccidia, worms, canker, haemoproteus etc is to have fecals, throat swabs and blood smears done. For practical purposes it is easier to have a vet do it for you.
A REALISTIC HEALTH PROGRAMME
Before Young Bird races - vaccinate for pox, PMV, and paratyphoid, 30 to 45 days before training begins.
Before breeding - vaccinate all birds for PMV and paratyphoid.
Before Racing - screen race birds for haemoproteus. Treat if you have it with atabrine and then treat two days a week during the season.
Before Racing - treat for ornithose complex for ten days. Treat at least every second week for three days.
Before Racing - check all birds for worms and coccidia. Treat if needed. Reccheck every two weeks and treat if needed early in the week.
Before Racing - treat for canker for three to five days. Treat at least every second week
The above comes from notes taken during a seminar given by an American vet, Dr. Steve Weir, who is a small animal vet in Catoosa, Oklahoma. He has flown pigeons successfully for many years.