This is a very difficult situation. Chickens don't get colds like humans do exactly. They end up being carriers of the disease. You can keep them and maintain a closed flock and not sell them to anyone and that saves you from culling, but you will have to deal with them having a re-lapsing chronic illness that they will get ill from periodically and it will drop egg production. You may end up spending a great deal of effort treating them with antibiotics during these times to help them through the illness. If you add any new birds, including new chicks, those birds will also get infected and get sick.
I think that for both of you your best option may be to cull. You are both dealing with a small number of birds to cull and you can get a fresh start with a healthy flock. Dealing with a chronic issue and not being able to get more birds will get really old. I would also suggest reading up on biosecurity. I would stay far, far away from birds sold on Craigs' List, Auctions, Shows, and even the guy down the street. Your absolute safest bet is buying day old chicks only from VERY reputable NPIP breeders and from good well known hatcheries (also NPIP). The other safe option is to hatch your own chicks. I know that some people sell sick birds knowing they are sick but I also think lots of folks just don't realize that the birds that had been sick and recovered are still spreading the disease. They just don't know better. I personally will never buy another adult bird after we bought birds at a poultry swap and brought ILT home to our flock. We chose to vaccinate our new young birds and the sick birds. Our origional birds will always have it and will never be sold to anyone. The new birds will be immune. We were able to do this because we had a diagnosis by necropsy from the Virginia state veterinarian. Vaccinating is a gamble and a bit of an experiment because although we are very careful, we may have brought the illness to our other birds before they got vaccinated. You can look at my old posts or ask me if you want to know more about this.
Anyway, hope I don't sound preachy, just trying to pass lots of information quickly. I had to learn about it the hard way. We lost some really great chickens. I wish you the best and if I can help with anything else let me know.
I think that for both of you your best option may be to cull. You are both dealing with a small number of birds to cull and you can get a fresh start with a healthy flock. Dealing with a chronic issue and not being able to get more birds will get really old. I would also suggest reading up on biosecurity. I would stay far, far away from birds sold on Craigs' List, Auctions, Shows, and even the guy down the street. Your absolute safest bet is buying day old chicks only from VERY reputable NPIP breeders and from good well known hatcheries (also NPIP). The other safe option is to hatch your own chicks. I know that some people sell sick birds knowing they are sick but I also think lots of folks just don't realize that the birds that had been sick and recovered are still spreading the disease. They just don't know better. I personally will never buy another adult bird after we bought birds at a poultry swap and brought ILT home to our flock. We chose to vaccinate our new young birds and the sick birds. Our origional birds will always have it and will never be sold to anyone. The new birds will be immune. We were able to do this because we had a diagnosis by necropsy from the Virginia state veterinarian. Vaccinating is a gamble and a bit of an experiment because although we are very careful, we may have brought the illness to our other birds before they got vaccinated. You can look at my old posts or ask me if you want to know more about this.
Anyway, hope I don't sound preachy, just trying to pass lots of information quickly. I had to learn about it the hard way. We lost some really great chickens. I wish you the best and if I can help with anything else let me know.
