3 recovered fine, one still sick...help

[sguth16]

This is my first experience with sick chickens. I have 3 RIRs and 1 Buff orpington. My buff went broody early last week. So I was trying to deal with that. Then, last friday I noticed that a couple of my RIRs were sneezing and one had small bubbles in one eye. I sepreated the two that I thought were sneezing. Saturday we went to the feed store and spoke with them and they gave us two meds. Oxytetracycline and Sulmet to be added to water. Sunday morning, my buff was somewhat lethargic and had one eye closed and was sneezing. So we seperated her. By monday the other three were great, the occasional sneeze, no nasal discharge and no eye bubbles. My buff was not getting any better and would not drink or eat...had to do this manually, her right eye was still closed and she seemd kind of rattley. She is still seperated but seems to be improving as far as appetite and no rattling. She will eat the grass but not the feed...still not drinking much. I cleaned her right eye yesterday and it is red with bubbles. Today she is opening it occasionally and there are less bubbles. Her poo is getting back to normal and I suppose this is because she is eating better. So, my question is could she just have had a worse case of who knows what because she was already stressed due to being broody? Or does she have something completely different? I'm scared to reintroduce her because I don't know what it is and the other three are just fine now..... please HELP!!!

 

[chickenzoo]

I would dose all of them with Tylan 50, 1/2 cc injected under skin. It is for respiratory infections, which sounds like they have. Some infections are permanent, meaning they look better but can still harbor the infection and have it pop up later and spread it to new chickens, so make sure you have a plan, disinfect everything and go from there.

 

[sguth16]

Okay, I just ordered some. What size needle should I use and should I give it to all of them or just the one that is still showing symptoms? How many times should they get it? Thanks so much for your help!

 

[rcentner]

any size should do... I like 22 guage, but anyhwhere between a 25 - 20 would be best and get a short needle (I like 3/4 inch, but not longer than 1 inch). Anything bigger than a 20 would be unnecessary.