Respiratory issues

[EquiAsh95]

New chicken mom this year and haven’t dealt with sickness. I picked up 5 silkies and they seemed healthy so I put them in with my older chicks (didn’t want to put them near my hatchlings).
Well 2 days later I noticed a silkie had some sniffles. Its breathing sounded congested. That one was fine the next day but a different was breathing congested so I gave it vetrx. Now today all of the chickens are sneezing and will occasionally shake their heads. I’ve read online that people are culling whole flocks when respiratory issues arise but I really don’t want to do that. I’ve read about tylan and doxycycline powder to put in water, however I saw it said not to give to meat chickens or chickens whose eggs are for consumption. So does this mean if I buy either of those I won’t be able to eat the eggs? They are all less than 12 weeks old so aren’t producing yet. This is just a whole new situation for me so looking for insight and the best way to go about treating. Also I’m worried about why people are saying to cull the whole flock. I thought since the one cleared up quickly it would be okay

 

[nuthatched]

Im sorry to hear that.
Treat appropriately with the antibiotics, it won't matter by the time they're laying.
Vetrx is just vicksrub for chickens, a placebo.
Get some Tylan 50 and give it orally, around a .5ml dose, twice a day for five days.
Make sure you wash your hands before touching your young birds.
Since you're new to chickens, a 1 Month (or longer) quarantine period is a must when getting new chickens from an unknown source, for this reason.



https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...ent-for-sustainable-poultry-production.78402/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...nderestimated-part-of-raising-chickens.67097/

 

[Eggcessive]

It is always best to quarantine new chickens just for this reason. There are a number of different respiratory diseases that affect chickens, such as infectious bronchitis virus, ILT virus, mycoplasma gallisepticum. (MG, CRD,) coryza, aspergillosis fungus, and a few others. Many of those will make the chickens carriers for months to life, depending on the organism. Sometimes symptoms can give clues, but testing through your state vet lab is more accurate. IB virus makes them sneeze for almost a month, and can affect their kidneys and reproductive system later. MG can cause bubbles/foam in eyes, swollen eyelids, and congestion. Antibiotics such as Tylosin, doxycycline, and Denagard treat MG symptoms, but nothing will cure it, and the chicken may get sick again, always being a carrier, plus passing it on through hatching eggs that actually hatch.