chicken has a cold

sandyj

Songster
11 Years
Dec 3, 2008
422
1
129
St.Paul, Minnesota
My friend down the block has chickens. I will be getting my own in the spring, but until then I call her chickens mine too. Two of her six chickens are sneezing and seem to have a runny nose. They also sound alittle gurggly when breathing. Does this sound like a cold? What needs to be done? I've heard they should be put somewhere warm and away from the other chickens. If she takes them in the house, what happens when they get better and have to go out to the cold coop again. How do you re-aclemate them to the cold. It's a cold Minnesota winter. Is there any med she should give them?
sandyj
 
She needs to know that chickens do not get colds, they get infectious diseases and even if they recover, some of these make them carriers for life. You'd need testing to know which disease they have. Some use antibiotics, but I would not. Never had any respiratory illness here, but my policy from Day One has been to cull, never treat, because of the carrier nature. Do a search on CRD, MG, mycoplasmosis, ILT, etc here on the forum to find lots of discussion about all this.

Remember, chickens are not mammals and do not react the same way to disease as mammals. And viruses they contract are often herpes-type viruses that never leave the body.
 
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This is correct. If you are getting your own birds in the future, make sure to try not to visit your friends birds as you will bring home the virus on your shoes.

The best thing to do is to have a foot bath for your shoes before you enter your coop. You can use a cheap kitty box you can get at Wally World and put in disinfectant or bleach water.

It is even possible the wild bird population in the area is what spread the disease in the first place, so be very careful.
 

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