In episode 46, Dr. Blayne Mozisek makes a house call to Bertram, Texas, to visit Sharon and her backyard flock. Sharon had been thinking about vaccinating her chickens for fowl pox, and Dr. Blayne takes the opportunity to introduce a combination chicken vaccine now available through ThePoultryDoc.com that protects against three diseases at once: fowl pox, Mycoplasma gallisepticum, and avian encephalomyelitis. Yes! There is a vaccine for Mycoplasma in backyard chickens.

Dr. Blayne walks through the entire wing web vaccination process step by step, from reconstituting the lyophilized vaccine with the blue dye diluent, to finding the wing web, to what a successful take looks like seven days later. He explains how to hold your bird securely, avoid the muscle, and what that small fowl pox lesion at the injection site means and why it is a good sign. He also covers why avian encephalomyelitis matters most for hens whose eggs you plan to hatch, and how the Mycoplasma vaccine works as a leaky vaccine to reduce Mycoplasma symptoms in chickens rather than prevent infection entirely.

After the vaccinations, Sharon walks us through her favorite coop features, including her waterer and feeder system, hemp bedding and solar-powered cameras. Dr. Blayne adds his own suggestions for keeping your backyard chickens cool in the summer heat, covering shade cloth solutions, electrolyte water, fans, misters, and how humidity affects whether a mister will actually help or just make a mess.

Learn more about the Vectormune FP-MG+AE (Fowl Pox + Mycoplasma + AE Vaccine)

The PoultryDoc.com provides board-certified poultry veterinary care for backyard chickens, with expert guidance, health resources and membership options for ongoing support.