Hello chicken folks,
I have a really awful problem that we are going to have to decide on what we do. My grown flock of chickens have become very sick with a respiratory illness and we have already lost my favorite blue copper Marans rooster, Elvis, to it. He was dead within 2 days of us even realizing he was sick.
The flock came from various places including a very reputable breeder (NPIP, AI, MG free), the Virginia Poultry breeders show, a local lady from Craig's list (young pullets), and from a poultry swap(will never, ever go to one again). Yeah, I know and would like to beat myself up over all that we have done wrong. Just didn't know better starting out. The birds from the show we actually did quarantine for 30 days and they were fine and we integrated them with the flock. These were 4 Sumatras and they are fine, at least for now. The birds have all been together and seemingly healthy for about 6 weeks. Some have been together for several months without sign of illness. We had thought we had gotten lucky and had vowed to ourselves to hatch our own, or get day old birds only from now on, but it was too late.
The symptoms of the illness are:
head shaking/head scratching
gurgling/wheezing-lots of mucous
difficulty breathing-wide open beak
not eating/drinking well
very swollen around the eyes-one girl even swollen shut
foamy/gooyey eye mucous
sneezing/coughing
no odd odor noticed-actually today noticed an off odor from hen while i was cleaning her eyes
manure seems normal
death in one bird-comb was getting bluish before he died
blood spatter around dead bird...we realize now that it is a sign of ILT
We are currently treating with Tylan 50 subcutanously (starting giving IM, learned that SQ was prefered) 0.5 cc everyday x 5-7 days. I am planning on taking a bird to our county extension for testing and necropsy. I really want to know what this is so I can treat it properly. Also, I believe that if it is MG, it will be carried through the egg. right? It will be Monday (2/14) before I can get the bird there. What do you think we are dealing with?
So, several issues we need advice on here:
I realize that one option is cull the flock.....do we cull the birds that seem healthy too? Are they healthy because they were already carriers? Do you keep birds that seem to have mild symptoms and recover?
We have 10 chicks incubated and now being brooded in the basement. I have 2 more incubators running that will hatch in about 10 days and 2 weeks. I also have chicks and more eggs on the way early in March. Will we be able to add these birds to our flock when the older birds seem to be well? Or am I just giving this disease to them? Should I just sell these chicks ASAP and get them away from this illness? (we wanted to keep them originally) Should I cancel the eggs and chicks that are coming in march?
We also have 2 bantam Japanese that have lived in the basement since we bought them at the bird show. They seem to be healthy. How can I be sure they don't have it to? We had let them outside with us when it was warm (can't seem to remember the last time that was) but they were not really mingling with the other flock all that much but did have a look at each other rather briefly. These bantams are in the same large basement as the brooder, but are about 15 feet away in their own pen.
We are just heartbroken. I had wanted to raise some rare breeds and hopefully sell a few here and there more as a hobby not a real business. I just can't sell someone sick animals. We are pretty attached to some of the birds we have now. They are somewhere between pets and livestock for us. So what can we do? Are we as doomed as I think we are? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!
I have a really awful problem that we are going to have to decide on what we do. My grown flock of chickens have become very sick with a respiratory illness and we have already lost my favorite blue copper Marans rooster, Elvis, to it. He was dead within 2 days of us even realizing he was sick.
The symptoms of the illness are:
head shaking/head scratching
gurgling/wheezing-lots of mucous
difficulty breathing-wide open beak
not eating/drinking well
very swollen around the eyes-one girl even swollen shut
foamy/gooyey eye mucous
sneezing/coughing
no odd odor noticed-actually today noticed an off odor from hen while i was cleaning her eyes
manure seems normal
death in one bird-comb was getting bluish before he died
blood spatter around dead bird...we realize now that it is a sign of ILT
We are currently treating with Tylan 50 subcutanously (starting giving IM, learned that SQ was prefered) 0.5 cc everyday x 5-7 days. I am planning on taking a bird to our county extension for testing and necropsy. I really want to know what this is so I can treat it properly. Also, I believe that if it is MG, it will be carried through the egg. right? It will be Monday (2/14) before I can get the bird there. What do you think we are dealing with?
So, several issues we need advice on here:
I realize that one option is cull the flock.....do we cull the birds that seem healthy too? Are they healthy because they were already carriers? Do you keep birds that seem to have mild symptoms and recover?
We have 10 chicks incubated and now being brooded in the basement. I have 2 more incubators running that will hatch in about 10 days and 2 weeks. I also have chicks and more eggs on the way early in March. Will we be able to add these birds to our flock when the older birds seem to be well? Or am I just giving this disease to them? Should I just sell these chicks ASAP and get them away from this illness? (we wanted to keep them originally) Should I cancel the eggs and chicks that are coming in march?
We also have 2 bantam Japanese that have lived in the basement since we bought them at the bird show. They seem to be healthy. How can I be sure they don't have it to? We had let them outside with us when it was warm (can't seem to remember the last time that was) but they were not really mingling with the other flock all that much but did have a look at each other rather briefly. These bantams are in the same large basement as the brooder, but are about 15 feet away in their own pen.
We are just heartbroken. I had wanted to raise some rare breeds and hopefully sell a few here and there more as a hobby not a real business. I just can't sell someone sick animals. We are pretty attached to some of the birds we have now. They are somewhere between pets and livestock for us. So what can we do? Are we as doomed as I think we are? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!
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