CRD?

[plreef]

I just checked in on our new silkies as we just introduced them to our existing bantams yesterday. As I was checking everyone over I noticed one of them has bubbles in her eyes, and seems sluggish. I did some research and found that it could be CRD, we did a treatment of Liquamycin (LA 200) when we first got them because we knew they had a cold of some sort. We did three days of treatment and everyone looked okay on day 4 (yesterday) so we thought we were free and clear to introduce them to our flock. Now I'm worried about the rest of our girls getting sick, including the ones we just treated. I don't have anywhere I can really separate her at the moment, but if I have to I'll figure something out. We have a bunch of birds in quarantine so our pens are all filled and I don't want to stick her in with them either because they just got treatment... Does the antibiotic we used not treat this? My husbands would probably know more, but he's not home so I figured I'd get as much advice from you guys that I could. Thanks for the help!

Mrs. Pl-Reef

 

[Chickenmaven]

My understanding is that antibiotics can "treat" many illnesses, helping the individual bird, but that the bird can remain a carrier.

 

[Nostalchic]

You've made a clinical diagnosis of CRD, and you may be right on, but this could be something else entirely, viral, or a traumatic eye injury or something bacterial besides mycoplasma and thus not sensitive to the antibiotic you used, so you can't assume that your treatment of all your new birds with Lincomycin was a success or a failure yet! It's always something of a crap shoot, but first things first, she should be isolated from your other birds and watched. If she has respiratory symptoms as well as the bubbly eye, maybe it would make sense to retreat her with the antibiotic - perhaps she got an inadequate dose somehow. She may also be co-infected with something else entirely, but you could see if she responds with good care and re-treatment. Good luck!
(Whoops, I misread your email, and just saw that you used Liquimycin, which is a tetracycline, right? not lincomycin. I think both work against the CRD mycoplasma organisms).
And I guess the other thing I was thinking was that you treated your new birds with an antibiotic because they had some respiratory symptoms (a "cold" or something) before you introduced them to your flock. But if you weren't sure what it was, you would take a big risk in putting them with your other chickens, it seems - we often make the assumption that we've eliminated a risk of transmission by using antibiotics, but that's ONLY if it was a bacterial infection and that it isn't a resistant form, or whatever. How long do you typically quarantine your new birds for?