Upper respiratory disease?????

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Plain Old Dee

Plain Old Dee

Songster
10 Years
Oct 30, 2009
368
7
149
Seminole, OK
I know next to nothing about chickens, but we recently acquired several. I've never had this problem, but it suddenly seems to be running rampant through my little flock.

The chickens will be fine one day, and struggling to breath the next. Some of them are coughing and sneezing. Some get better, but a couple have died. We were using Tetracycline in their water, and there was some general improvement. Now I have another one struggling to breath. Her comb is blueish and her poo is very watery.

Any ideas on something else I can try?

Could this be why they aren't laying yet? Most of my chickens are six months old by now, but they aren't laying.
 
This is a tricky question. Some treat, some dont. They may survive with supportive therapy, but may remain carriers for life. I can't tell you exactly what they have, but my own personal decision is to euthanize any birds who come down with anything respiratory. Many think that is too harsh. I don't buy birds, folks who come here must disinfect their shoes, etc. To know what they have, you'd have to do testing, which requires a necropsy, usually.
 
Depending on what they have, most likely MG, they can recover but will become carriers and from time to time the disease will show up.

Tylan is the best antibiotic. It will not cure the disease but will help the secondary infections. This is assuming it is MG they have.

Read through those links I just posted.
 
It does sound like MG. There's no facial swelling, just the runny stools and upper respiratory stuff. Their eyes are all clear.

Sounds like the problem came from the original pullets I bought - from a breeder.
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I noticed that one of the pullets was a bit wheezy when we first brought her home. She seemed to recover - but a couple more got sick and died. Most of the ones that got sick got better. Even though Terramyacin isn't the best antibiotic in the world - I guess it helped keep the rest of the sick ones from getting worse with secondary infections. I only have the one sick hen at the moment - that I know of.

If I euthanize the sick birds - can the rest of the flock be salvaged? I'm not planning on selling any - just the eggs and meat.
 
You don't have to euthanize any if you plan on keeping them away from other birds. Most will beat it. MG weakens them allowing the other infections to flourish.

Terramycin, to my understanding, will not help. I tried it on my birds and it did nothing.

My story ended with me culling all my birds, waiting a few months, and starting a new, MG free, flock.

You can get Tylan at a Tractor Supply. If you keep these birds some will get sick again during their molt.

Best of luck.
 
Well, I feel a little better then. I'll go to TSC and get some Tylan for them and quit with the Terramycin.

I'll just have to watch and wait. If it looks like I'm going to have to fight this forever, I may do what you did and scrap the whole flock and start over.

If I have to start over, where can I get MG free birds? From the info in the links, not all hatcheries even test for it?
 
The chances of getting MG from day old hatchery chicks is very low.

There are many members here who sell eggs who are almost certainly MG free.


If you ordered chicks from a hatchery ad they were MG positive they would almost definately show signs early on. I found MG hits young birds the hardest, especially silkies.
 
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