The Joe Murphy Column

 

Received an email from Phil Gardner the technical marketing manager for Respiro-San-Dry who was at Doncaster Show this past weekend and a few of my Country Men came on the stand and were very upset that he would not be attending Lanark Show this year. No one is sorrier than Phil as he has many happy memories of his time working in Mid Calder and going there via Lanark, in fact he nearly bought a lovely house not far from the new Auction Mart, overlooking the lake. The reason he is not coming is twofold his helper Paul has lost his driving licence. He is not getting any younger and all the lifting of the tubs and setting up is too much for him. However he says ‘Joe if you could tell your avid readers in Scotland that we will make up for this by doing a Christmas Special Deal this will be advertised in the BHW and Racing Pigeon weekly magazine and will run from the 3rd December 2015 until the 16th December 2015 and will be a 15kg bucket of our Respiro San Dry delivered to the fanciers door for £30.00. This is not a bad deal and the advert should be in this week’s paper so look it out. Phil and I also discussed the following subject;

 

Young Bird Sickness

 

Like all pigeon fanciers I concern myself with the dreaded Young Bird Sickness but have to say that as I do not race youngsters but have purchased one or two babies and soon afterwards discover they are bringing up their food. Phil Gardner was telling me that over the last 12 years he has become more and more involved with racing pigeons, aviary birds, fancy pigeon and indeed the poultry world. This following on from many years with Phil actually managing large scale intensive pig and poultry units and then he moved into producing and marketing natural livestock health products. Over the past 12 years the success of these products has enabled him to build up a large loyal band of serious, inquisitive Pigeon Racing customers all looking for healthy pigeons and quite naturally more ways of winning for their birds to be first back in the loft.

One of the questions he is often asked mostly by customers is about young bird sickness, this set him searching to try and find an answer. Firstly by using his knowledge of doing things naturally and trying to pull in the latest products and health and hygiene happenings in the large scale intensive poultry world would also help to find an answer for pigeon fanciers concerns. Modern day poultry production uses very little anti-biotics and other chemicals. There’s a lot of information out there involving intensive poultry that can be scaled down to help the racing pigeon, it is knowing where to look and who to talk to, to get the right bits, the best bits and Phil has used this to his advantage. He stressed ‘It must be remembered early on that Anti-biotics not only knock out the bad bugs they also kill off the good bugs and can damage the gut micro-flora, leading to a lowered immunity to other diseases’. So over the last 3 years he has spent as much time as possible, looking into Young Bird Sickness and then having friendly customer’s trial my ideas. It must be said, it is not a simple problem, nor is it caused by one strain of pathogen, bacteria or virus, nor in fact by any one occurrence in the life of the young bird, whether it be a squab, a grower or even an adult bird. It is not really a true specific disease as it has so many causal triggers. However it has many pre-disposing causes and they are simply linked to Stress in the loft and the bird’s early life. A pigeon’s worst enemy is another pigeon; an office worker can catch flu from a co-worker, not on a freezing walk in the Lakes District. It takes two, three or more.

 

What is stress?

 

Stress is an invisible thing; it does not always manifest itself as a sickness or a disease; however it is a causal agent of disease and sickness in all living things, humans included, stress, in humans is much more mentally damaging than in animals or racing pigeons. What causes Stress here is a quick shortlist;

 

1) Another pigeon, young birds mixing at race times, crating up for racing.

2) Over population, stocking density, too many birds, poor environment.

3) Inadequate supply of fresh clean water, water quality

4) Poor feeding, a non-balanced diets i.e. too much protein or NOT enough.

5) Poor air quality, high Ammonia levels, poor ventilation.

6) Careless or too much handling of birds.

7) Loud noises, noisy, loud neighbours, dogs, cars etc.

8) Changes in the weather, especially: damp wet and foggy days and nights.

9) Seasonal changes, Spring Summer Winter etc.

10) Poor hygiene and lack of vermin control.

11) Moulds, myco-toxins and fungi in feeding stuffs and grains.

12) Poor stockman ship, disease recognition and control

13) Predators, hawks, cats, howling dogs.

 

When a living thing, human being or bird is stressed it’s body secretes a hormone called Adrenalin, this is known as the fear and flee hormone, it causes fear, an increased heart rate, blood flow and a short powerful burst of power to help escape the stress point, the pigeon in the loft cannot escape so it has to live with the stress, unfortunately stress also dramatically raises the body’s pH level, leaving the body open to attack from pathogens. Phil will try to explain this phenomenon later in these notes but simply understanding what can cause Stress and Sickness is essential to look after the health and performance of your racing birds, it also rubs off on yourself too.

 

What is pH and how does it affect the squab through to the adult racing pigeon?

The pH scale is a very simple, highly practical measure to help target and improve racing pigeon health.

Simply pH is the scale used for measuring the acidity or alkalinity of any liquid or element; it is also used as a mechanism to create the correct pH within the gut, the blood and body muscle and tissue.

 

A pH of 7 is Neutral, anything above is Alkaline and anything below is Acidic. It is a proven medical and veterinary fact that sickness and diseases are more prevalent in alkaline situations, a high pH. The loft is an alkaline environment and many feeds, beddings and other daily inputs are alkaline too, as is dust and Ammonia. If we can create a low pH or more acidic environment by using organic acids in feed and water and in the air in the loft we can greatly reduce disease pressure and overcome many problems like the dreaded Young Bird Sickness.

                                                                                                 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Neutral

                                  Acidity??3???4??.5??.6??pH7??8??.9??10??11??Alkalinity

 

                                  Good bugs: Beneficial Bacteria Lactobacillus                       

                                                                                             Bad bugs: Pathogens, Virus, Bacteria, E.coli, Salmonella

 

Why is pH important to your pigeon’s health?

One very simple point to remember is that all pathogens, the bad bacteria and viruses, need a High pH state, known as Alkalinity to stay alive and to multiply, grow and cause disease in your birds. Whereas all beneficial or good bacteria need a Low pH state, more leaning to Acidity, this helps them to colonize the gut and body to fight off disease and stress. Regular use of a Specific Acidifier can keep the gut pH at its optimum low level, thus denying the bad bugs the alkaline environment they need to live and survive in. Organic Acids can be misted into the loft environment to promote a healthy airspace. Creating this lower Acidic pH helps to develop a good, healthy active gut microflora and greatly reducing enteric diseases. Finally by continued use of organic acids we can also manipulate the pH of the blood stream and body mass, lungs, muscles and tissues, creating greater strength, energy and immunity.

 

Why is it important to avoid Stress?

When we as humans are stressed our body secretes a hormone called Adrenalin, this is known as the fear hormone, and causes us to panic, increases blood flow, tone up muscles and flee from attack etc. Stress with the pigeon happens in many ways and causes, being introduced or mixing with other strange pigeons, transportation, heat stress poor loft environment, mishandling, poor feed quality, bad hygiene.

Mating time also bad weather, pests and predators, unusual noises and strangers in the loft all amount to stress. The list is endless, but there is one overriding factor to remember, that no matter how, why or when stress happens, it will quickly and dramatically raise the pH of the bird’s body and blood forcing it into an Alkaline state, thus leaving the body weak and more open to viral and bacterial disease attack. These stresses, are the physical pointers to the bad health triggers, that Human and Veterinary medicine simply know as those “pre-disposing causes” that lead to sicknesses, which then develop from simple ‘stress periods’, ultimately into very serious sickness and disease. This is where, Phil is now certain, after many post mortems and trials that Young Bird Sickness comes from, more a miss mash of things, rather than an out and out single specific disease.

Talking to customers and pigeon fanciers from all over the UK and Europe has strengthened his belief that this is the problem area and why it appears all of a sudden out of the ‘blue’. BUT he firmly believes that if you, when reading these notes and think things through, you will always raise a doubt in your mind as to why and where this problem came from, a little earlier I mentioned “Pre disposing Causes” these are often the most simple basic things and so easily overlooked. The old rule of “Prevention is better than Cure” is never more pertinent in this instance.

Phil has been developed and trialled a product called TRIDENT 3 in 1 to work as a preventative and for fire brigade action with sick birds. This can be added to the birds feed or given in the drinking water, to date the best results are to add a small amount daily and then to top up in the drinking water at any sign for concern. Phil is hoping to have this product on sale at the BHW Show of the Year at Blackpool 2016. So if fanciers are interested then go along and have a word with Phil about this product.

 

This week’s Photo

 

"The Murphy Cock"

Received this picture from Terry Peart fellow scribe who was at the Epsom Show and took the ‘Murphy Cock’ picture for John Tyerman whom I gifted the cock as a youngster. This cock is a Leo Van Rijn and he is a full brother to ‘Lucky’ our 7 x 1st prize winner and 4 times a winner in the SNFC from inland races unfortunately she was lost at Eastbourne this year. However John’s ‘Murphy Cock’ has done well for him and has won some club prizes but his BICC positions are what makes him something special these are as follows. In 2013 he won 336th out of 3654 birds at BICC Tours race. Then this year he won BICC Le-Mans 109th open from 2,182 birds, he was also 1st club, 2nd South Coast federation from Bordeaux beating all Solent federation birds from this joint liberation. My thanks to Terry and John for the photograph and we had ½ brothers and sisters offers in our advert last week and have still got them. I have also added a couple of pictures of my stock cocks the red is from F & J Vandenheede crossed Jos Van Olmen hen while the chequer is a ¾ DeWeerdt bred cock his sire is a full brother to the Dewar Trophy winner I wrote about last week.

 

Red: F & J Vandenheede crossed Jos Van Olmen hen    Chequer: ¾ DeWeerdt cock - sire full brother to Dewar Trophy winner      

Good SNFC Birds

 

This week I start with Richard Combe and son Jamie of Elphinstone in East Lothian, their chequer cock SU10 5482 ‘Setonpark Zico’ won his SNFC Silver Award in 2015. He named after the famous Brazilian footballer Zico and won the following in 2013 he was 10th section B 50th open Clermont flying 506 miles, then in 2014 he won 1st section B 6th open Ancenis a distance of 596 miles and this year 2015 he won 5th section B 21st open Gold Cup race from Alencon a distance of 533 miles. Again another good pigeon who has been 3 times in the top 10 in the section and 3 times in the top 50 open in SNFC races, as a matter of interest Zico is a son of Setonpark Caelian’ who is also a winner of a SNFC Silver Award well done Richard and Jamie.

We now go to the west section for our next SNFC Silver Award winner to John Houston of Greengairs in the Midland federation. His blue bar hen SU10M 3613 won her first section prize in 2013 from Alencon a distance of 544 miles winning 32nd section E, in 2014 she was 8th section E 36th open from Ancenis a distance of 602 miles and this year 2015 she won 14th section E 156th open Clermont a distance of 525 miles well done to John on winning this award.

Joe’s Joke

A Scotsman engineer can't find a job so he opens a clinic and puts a sign outside: 'GET TREATMENT FOR £20 - IF NOT CURED GET BACK £100

A lawyer thinks this is a great opportunity to earn £100 and goes to the clinic...
Lawyer: "I have lost my sense of taste". Scotsman: "Nurse, bring medicine from box number.22 and put 3 drops in patient's mouth". Lawyer: "Ugh..This is petrol"
Scotsman: "Congratulations, your sense of taste is restored that will be £20"
The annoyed lawyer goes back after a few days to recover his money...
Lawyer: "I have lost my memory.. I cannot remember anything".

Scotsman: "Nurse, bring medicine from box number.22 and put 3 drops in his mouth". Lawyer (annoyed): "This is petrol. You gave this to me last time for restoring my taste". Scotsman: "Congratulations. You got your memory back that will be £20". The fuming lawyer pays him, and then comes back a week later determined to get back £100. Lawyer: "My eyesight has become very weak"
Scotsman: "Well, I don't have any medicine for that, so here take this £100 note"
Lawyer (staring at the note): "But this is a £20 note not £100". Scotsman: "Congratulations, your eyesight is restored, now give me back my £20"
You can't beat a Scotsman from Glasgow!!

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Here is an update on Civilization in 2015 -

? Our Phones Wireless

? Cooking Fireless

? Cars Keyless

? Food Fatless

? Tires Tubeless

? Dress Sleeveless

? Youth Jobless

? Leaders Shameless

? Relationships Meaningless

? Attitudes Careless

? Babies Fatherless

? Feelings Heartless

? Education Valueless

? Children Manner-less

? Country Godless

We are SPEECHLESS, Government is CLUELESS, and our Politicians are WORTHLESS!  I think that more or less sums it up! Don’t you

 

Please continue to keep the news flowing;

to Joe Murphy Mystical Rose Cottage 2 Flutorum Avenue

Thornton by Kirkcaldy KY1 4BD

or phone 01592 770331 or Email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

REMEMBER THE J IN THE MIDDLE

or log onto www.elimarpigeons.com www.fancierchat.co.uk www.pigeon-chat.co.uk and www.pigeoncraic.com who wish my weekly contribution portfolio on pigeon topics from Scotland.

© Compiled by Joe Murphy