Respiratory Infection

[agnewcoop]

So I made a stupid mistake and got 6 new hens and let them in with my chickens after only 4 days by themselves. The chickens came from a place where they were over- crowded and badly over- used by the roosters so they looked terrible but I figured the best way to help them was to let them with my flock and start giving them good food and lots of attention.
Well two days later 1 of mine gets sick quickly with nasty eyes, coughing, terrible chest rattle and slinging some yuck around, within and hour I can see it appearing in 3 more chickens. From reading it seems like Tylan 50 is the best option so I orally gave all of my chickens 1/2cc.
They all seemed to perk up some except the first one the showed symptoms and she is gasping when she breaths.
From what I read I should give them 1/2cc 2x a day for 3 or 5-7 days (I have read different opinions so not sure)
The new chickens are gone and I have completely cleaned my coop top to bottom.
Am I doing the right thing? Is there anything else I can do?

 

[Pyxis]

Sounds like the new ones were carriers of a respiratory disease. Now that they've given it to your birds, it doesn't matter that they're gone (and by gone I hope you mean you culled them, not just passed them on to someone else and spread the disease to them). Your birds will likely carry whatever it is for the rest of their lives and will now pass it to any new birds you bring in. It's best for you to run a closed flock from now on because if you sell/give away any birds you'll just be infecting other people's flocks.

What you want to treat them with depends on what they have. If they're not responding to Tylan, I'd try treating with Sulmet in case it is coryza (which is more likely than MG because MG has a six to ten day incubation period) or you can also try Denagard which will help if it is MG. There are other things it could be also.

 

[agnewcoop]

Yes they were culled, I am certain they had other issues and were a lot older than I was told too. From now on I won't be "feeling bad" for other chickens and try to help them.
By carrying it forever does fhat mean they will always act sick?

 

[Pyxis]

Yes they were culled, I am certain they had other issues and were a lot older than I was told too. From now on I won't be "feeling bad" for other chickens and try to help them.
By carrying it forever does fhat mean they will always act sick?

Glad you culled them. It is hard sometimes to walk away from birds that look like they need help. I've taken in birds before but I just won't do it anymore because the month long quarantine is so stressful for both them and me. They won't always act sick, but they will always carry the disease and in times of stress such as molting or when they come into lay etc they may start to show symptoms again and need another round of treatment.

 

[agnewcoop]

Things don't seem to be getting better as much as I was hoping.
It's the end of day 3 on Tylan 50 so they have each had 6 doses of .75ml.
1 seems to be almost perfect, 1 seemed to never have any symptoms and the other 4 are still coughing, flinging snotty stuff and I can hear their chest rattling, 1 of the 4 has a horrible swollen eye and 1 I have seen taking gasping breaths and both of these lay down more than usual.
2 are still laying daily eggs which I am tossing bc of the antibiotics.
Any other suggestions?
I don't want them to be suffering but I also don't want to give up on them if they can still get better.