What Do We Do?

[TheYoungV]

We are still pretty new to chickens. We have a flock of 5 young chickens that we raised from 3 days old. We want to add to our flock, so we recently purchased some young hens from a guy off of Craigslist. They were from a "Certified Clean Flock with no illnesses" and upon seeing them we thought they looked healthy. He also had Easter Eggers, so we decided to purchase a couple of those as well.

Upon coming home and putting them in their temporary coop (we wanted to quarantine them for 30 days) we noticed they had diarrhea. Then we noticed one of the easter eggers had a runny nose! Being new to chickens, we did some research and read it might (hopefully) be dust and ammonia in the coop they were kept in. We couldn't really see inside the coop but it did seem rather dusty and strong smelling, and we read that the diarrhea could be due to stress from the move. The next morning we sent the guy a message, and got no response.

Later in the day we found the two easter eggers bleeding from their tails. One of them had no tail to start with and the guy had said she was going through a juvenile molt. We separated them both from the rest. So we have 3 different enclosures for them. Today, one of the other 3 chickens has begun to sneeze. We still have not heard back from the guy.

From what we've read so far, this could be a respiratory illness and it is contagious and requires costly treatment. We can't afford that, and are just completely at a loss on what we should do within financial reason. We don't want to return them to the guy, because we have grown rather fond of them, especially one of the easter eggers. She is a sweetheart and loves to be held. And we really don't want to return them to what we suspect was a bad situation. We would feel really bad. But at this point we have no idea what to do and whether or not they are going to get worse and die... I dont think we're just going to let this guy get away with taking our money and selling us sick chickens that we wont even be able to put with the rest of our flock.

Need advice on what to do. We purchased VetRX but really have no idea if it will even work... Any advice is appreciated. Thank you!

 

[Free Spirit]

I think you may already have your answer and the keyword you used was ammonia. If the litter smelled heavy of ammonia then it was already at lethal levels.

Ammonia damages the chickens delicate respiratory tissues. High levels can lead to conjunctivitis (ammonia blindness) and can increase the chance of infectious bronchitis as well. If you can smell it then it's already too much for the chickens respiratory health.

I don't know what advise to give you to treat it. Hopefully there will be someone on here to give you some help. In the meantime, make sure that they have plenty of ventilation in their area and that you keep them well away from you main flock (which you said you are already doing).

 

[TheYoungV]

Thanks for your input. It didn't really smell that much like ammonia, though. I think the strong smell might've been the diarrhea. The coop did have wiring on both sides so there was some ventilation. The smell of their poop is similar to how the coop smelled. But we have never had this issue with our chickens and didn't realize that what we were smelling was diarrhea.

 

[Suzie]

Maybe you should communicate a message to the person that sold you these chickens...tell them in no uncertain terms that you are a member of BYC..You need support and some reassurance that the person selling certified chickens will offer any financial support you need for your purchased flock...maybe tell them that you name them and shame them for their disdemeanour if they will not help you out with this awful situation..at least they can offer to pay for any Veterinary treatment....

Wishing you strength and courage to help you and your flock!

 

[Free Spirit]

If it was diarrhea you were smelling then it sounds like they may have been already sick when you picked them up. Of course stresses from moving can be hard on the chickens but something doesn't feel right.

Until you get a better answer from another forum member you may want to start them on some electrolytes and probiotics. Both can be purchased from Tractor Supply in packages that you add to a gallon of drinking water. I would do that right away.

 

[enola]

In the best interest of the chickens you already had, these new chickens need to be removed from your property. The seller is not answering your messages, because he knew they were sick when he sold them (more than likely).

With medications, you may be able to prevent the respiratory infection from killing the chickens, but they will be carriers of this illness for the rest of their lives.

I am so sorry for the predicament this person has put you in.

 

[Sonya9]

What does "certified" mean? If he is NPIP certified then you should be able to find his name listed online (at least in Georgia, all NPIP breeders are listed).

If he is indeed NPIP certified I would think about calling the Ag department on him, and if one of the birds dies I would look into having a state vet do a necropsy (some states do that at no cost, they like to keep track of poultry diseases).

 

[TheYoungV]

Thank you all so much for your input. I just wanted to post an update.

After reading your helpful responses we decided to give the chickens back. We sent the guy a text message telling him once again that the chickens were sick, we would not be able to add them to our flock and that we wanted to return them for a refund. We also said we wanted to resolve this as peacefully and as easily as possible. That text message went unanswered, as expected.

A few days later, we were about an hour away from home, and decided to stop at a Tractor Supply. The GPS showed that there were two we could choose from. We went with one that was just a minute closer. We'd never visited this Tractor Supply before and were hoping that they would be more knowledgeable of chickens than the people at our local Tractor Supply. We ended up speaking with the manager at this location who knew a lot about chickens. We told him about the predicament we were in and he recommended a treatment of antibiotics in a powder form that comes in a bag, and suggested we add it to their water for two weeks. He said that at this point it was worth trying to get them better and going from there. He was very nice and we ended up talking for close to an hour, although we had only intended to be in and out, as it was dark and we still had a 40 min drive ahead of us.

As we were getting ready to drive away, a car pulled up next to us. Guess who gets out of the car.....

It was the guy who had sold us the chickens! And his girlfriend.

We jumped out of the car and said, "Hi! How's it going? "

They looked stunned. Long story short, he was apologetic. He agreed to be there on an agreed upon day and time. We said that running into them like this could not be a coincidence, and that we'd been praying for a solution! We had only been passing through and had almost decided to go another Tractor Supply. He said, "You're probably right about divine intervention" and said they had not even planned on going to the Tractor Supply that evening! We told them how we thought they'd seemed like really nice people and that we didn't want to believe they would knowingly sell us sick chickens and ignore our attempts to reach them. That was a really 'sucky' feeling. We parted ways, in disbelief about what had just happened!

Two days later we drove to our appointment to return the sick chickens. He was waiting for us outside. We told him about our favorite easter egger, just how awesome she was, and how she liked to sit on our shoulders and said, "If you can save any of them, save this one. She's awesome." It was so hard to give her back, but we knew there had to be a good reason things had played out this way.

We received another apology, got our money back, and off we went with a feeling of relief. From now on we will only buy chicks from a reputable hatchery. Lesson learned!

 

[Suzie]

An amazing outcome...I know how hard it is to part with one that is so special to our heart... BUT this person has to bear the responsibility for selling sick chickens... we live and learn...