Possible cure for aspergillosis/Brooder pneumonia

We had a week old chick recently who started gaping all the time and just standing, miserable in a corner of the brooder box with her head tucked down, staring at the cardboard wall. She ate and drank, though not much. From what we could tell, she had aspergillosis, which is a fatal respiratory infection that can occur when a bird breaths in a mold or fungal spore. I googled up and down the internet looking for a cure, but the concensus seemed to be that there isn't one. I switched her into a completely new brooder box in case something in the old one was the cause. A day or two went by and she was just getting worse. At that point, I was willing to try anything and thought perhaps there was some kind of antifungal medicine that might help. I couldn't find anything appropriate, though, so ultimately opted for garlic, which is known to have antifungal properties. I'd have to administer it orally, though, and wasn't sure it would do anything for a respiratory infection.

I read that the antifungal properties from garlic come from the garlic being crushed, allowing two substances in the garlic to combine. So I crushed one clove of garlic into the chicks' water (in a small waterer) each day, and she started getting better. After a few days, she was completely recovered. It's now a month later and she's still doing well. I actually still put garlic in my chicks' water every day, since they're all nuts about it. Whenever I put a fresh batch of water down, they all race over and peck up all the little garlic bits.

Anyway, I can't claim garlic cures aspergillosis, since all the experts seem to agree there is no cure -- maybe we just got lucky -- but it's definitely worth a try.

Wow - I like your thinking! I'm going to start using garlic outside now - - -

Hmmmmm Garlic flavored eggs. That could be good. LOL

Then again, I put Garlic in about anything.

Lee

Garlic and hot peppers: The cure for everything.

Awesome! I don't doubt it, actually. Every time I'm getting a cold, I eat the two until I'm sweating... haven't been sick in over a decade.

Glad to hear of your success

I hope the garlic works. Trying to figure out what is going on with my hen. She has respiratory problems, she's lethargic, she has twisted neck - a lot of the symptoms for brooder pneumonia...Started treating with tetracycline on Friday. Going to add garlic and apple cider vinegar to their water this morning and hope she improves.

Morwenna, I want to thank you so much for sharing this. I have a chick that never grew right ( she is 5 weeks old & I can still hold her in one hand & she still only has wing feathers ) who started in with the same symptoms you described. A couple weeks before, I had used some old peat moss as partial bedding because I had run out of shavings. Anyway, I did all this internet research & she had all the symptoms of brooder pneumonia. So, I started looking for cures & stumbled on this thread. Right away, I separated her & put garlic in her water & in the water to the rest of the flock. I cleaned out where the peat moss had been best I could & put down fresh shavings. Next day, I had another chick that was acting off, staying off by herself w/ ruffled feathers, not joining the others to scratch & forage, etc. So, I picked her up & made her drink the vinegar water. I did this for 2 days & she is back to her normal self! My tiny sick one still has labored breathing today, after 2 days on the garlic water, but the breathing is not quite as open mouthed as it had been, so we'll see. Since her symptoms were more severe, it might take longer for her to get completely over it. Any way, I thank you, thank you, thank you for mentioning this on here!!!!

Another thank you for sharing this. Our two year old rooster came down with something about two months ago, lethargic, spacey, constantly what we called "powering down" and he stopped crowing. We tried everything we could think of and he did not really improve. About three weeks ago I found this thread and we decided to try the garlic water, though we did not have much hope. We were willing to fight for this guy though because he had survived one of our puppies pulling out all of his tail feathers (the puppy is deaf and very protective of her space, he had escaped the chicken yard and got too close to said space) and one of our male geese tried to drown him.
Well, over these last few weeks he has improved immensely, getting stronger and acting more "roostery" but still no voice other than a few grunts. About 10 minutes ago my husband called my daughter and I over to the window and shushed us. Our Romeo was out in his "bus" crowing!
We may never know exactly what was wrong with him, but he never showed improvement until we started him on garlic water.

Thanks for your help,i will try with garlic!

wonder if garlic capsules would work?

If it were Aspergillosis, symptoms of gasping, swollen eyes, loss of appetite, eyelids stuck together would have been seen. Convulsions and nervous symptoms are seen because the mold toxin can enter the brain. Aspergillosis can grow on grains like peanuts and corn, straw, oak trees. Humidity is the preferred environment like most molds/fungi.

Disinfecting feeders, removing old litter, and disinfecting houses/brooder with something effective like Oxine AH are effective to control it. Good ventilation is always important. It is often stated that most treatments are unsuccessful, but many have used .25 tsp of copper sulfate per gallon of water for 5 days if birds are affected.

Garlic and Oregano oils are good additions to feed once or twice a week just due to their antioxidant/antibacterial qualities. Garlic increases antioxidant levels, is an anti-infammatory and oregano is a very potent antioxidant. The pigeon folks have been wise to this for some time. Neither are cures for disease, but are certainly supportive of the immune system.