Question!

[azoh10]

Help



I am a first time chicken owner and I have taken very good care of my chickens and have taken this seriously to make sure water is

fresh medicated chick starter clean out the pine shavings every day. We got the chickens on 4-7-2014 and all was well then about 2

weeks ago all chicken except for 3 we have a total of 16. The chickens started to Sneeze, Wheezing, Crackles, rales from lungs. So

then we gave them Tylan for 3 days of injections now symptoms have cleared except for Diarrhea seen in pine chips.

The chickens have no water eyes no crust no secretions they are active wide eye.

This spread to the others chicken with in 2-3 day of noticing first chicken with symptoms. Not knowing we

did not isolate them when we did 5 had no symptoms during treatment we eneded separating isolating another 2 of the 5 that never

exhibit any symptoms leaving only 3 that never developed symptoms. I was told by 3 different people that work at chicken stores and

hatchery that we should kill all the chickens and

get rid of them because they are no good and have a virus. Yesterday was the third day that we injected them with Tylan and the

chickens seem fine like nothing ever

happen. So I have been sad and crying I don't want tot get rid of them. So I just want to get some feed back from any one that has

experiences with chickens and maybe this kind of problem and being a first time chicken owner what would should do. We don't have

any vet's around that know about chickens.



Thank you!

 

[dawg53]

The people at the chicken stores and hatchery are correct, it would be best to cull the sick birds. You are dealing with a respiratory disease, the symptoms are all there. Antibiotics such as tylan are used to treat respiratory diseases, however they only treat...they do NOT cure whatever disease it is. Birds may appear fine for awhile, but when stressed, the birds will relapse. Then it's possible that the tylan might not work due to bacterial resistance, then requiring a more potent antibiotic to treat the sick birds.
You can keep your sick birds and maintain a closed flock. That means putting your other birds at risk for infection and spending more money on antibiotics to continue to treat sick birds. It also means that you cant introduce new birds to your existing sick flock, nor sell or give away birds, nor sell or give away eggs to be hatched, as some types of respiratory diseases can be transmitted through eggs. Additionally there are egg withdrawal periods after using antibiotics and eggs should be disposed of in the garbage. For example you used tylan injectable; there is a 7 day withdrawal period after the last injection.
As mentioned, your other option is to cull your sick birds and hopefully whatever disease it is hasnt spread to your healthy birds.