quarantined chickens

[txbird]

I need some friendly advice:

heres's the background to the scenario:

I recently purchased two young millie cochins at a bird show at the beginning of May. I kept them separate for a while, but they ended up getting my entire flock sick with some sort of respiratory infection. Although, they themselves weren't showing the actual symptoms--I guess they had built up some immunity to it, they were carriers and brought the disease into my yard.

I treated my entire flock with Oxytetracycline soluble powder for 14 days and then followed with vitamins and electrolytes for 5-7 days.... The first 5 days of soluble powder were accompanied with Tylan 50 from tractor supply administered once daily orally.

I had to keep a few inside under a light to keep them warm---I had a loss of 3 of 30 birds...sadly it was the roosters.


After this tragedy---I brought the two cochins inside and kept them in a pen by themselves---they also were administered the oxytetracycline (14 days) and vitamins and Electrolytes...and I wormed them. I didn't give them tylan as they weren't showing the symptoms....


I did have one relapse of one bird in the flock outside, which I quickly noticed and kept her seperate and gave tylan for 5 days...shes good to go again...


My question stems from this:

"How long do I keep these birds in quarantine?"

I'm nervous to let them out with the others... Is there a broad spectrum antibiotic better than oxytetracyline for chickens? I hope I wiped out any pathogens in their systems. I read that they are carriers for life, but their bodies build immunities to it..

 

[Eggcessive]

It sounds like you are dealing with mycoplasma (MG,) but hard to know for certain without a lab test or necropsy. Since it has gone through the flock, it may not matter when they are integrated, but I would probably wait untilthe sick birds are showing no symptoms for at least several days. I would recommend not adding to your flock until the last bird is gone. MG only remains alive on equipment and other surfaces for 3 days. Mycoplasma is fairly common in backyard flocks, and many people don't realize it until a bird is stressed and starts to show symptoms. If you get a positive MG test, you may want to do a search on Denagard in rhe seach box, top of rhis page. Many use it as a treatment and in lower doses as a preventative once a month. Good luck with your flock.

 

[txbird]

thank you for taking the time to reading my post!

I have read about the Denagard some, but from what I can tell---There's a lot of confusion as to what rate it should be administered for poultry for treatment vs preventative.

Have you ever encountered this problem (hopefully not) and if so, have you used this product (at what rate?)

As of now (knock on wood) I have no birds showing any symptoms of disease, but I'll wait to release the birds until I receive this product in hand in case there is another break out.

I don't want to cause extra stress with disease in combination with this texas heat!!!

again, thank you for the time you took to reply to me!