Accident During Medicating

[PossiblyPekin]

Hello everyone,

I'm brand new here, but this website has already been a huge help with many things.

I recently got a beautiful rooster and have been quarantining him for about a week. Whenever I get new chickens, I always give them probiotics and medicine before introducing them to my flock, as I am extremely cautious after receiving sick chickens in the past.

Tonight, I gave my rooster his second treatment of DOXYMAX with a syringe. The syringe was filled with filtered water and a few drops of the medicine. While I was slowly dripping the medicine onto his beak, he squirmed unexpectedly, causing me to accidentally apply too much pressure on the syringe. This resulted in some of the fluid getting into his nose and possibly his lungs.

In a panic, I held him, gently patted his back, and massaged his crop to try to expel any fluids. I noticed his breathing became gurgly; he shook his head, sneezed, and kept his beak open to breathe. I feel absolutely awful.

After keeping my eye on him, and just overall petting his back, he's now asleep in his cage. Still coughing and sneezing but breathing easier and with a closed beak.

Update:

He's okay and got whatever fluids he had out of his system! All my birds are perfectly healthy

Do I take him to the vet or do I just allow him to recover throughout the night? I've grown so attached to this rooster. I'm new to owning chickens so I'm still learning everyday.

 

[nuthatched]

The vet won't be able to do anything, you are already giving him strong antibiotics. What are you giving them for?

 

[PossiblyPekin]

The vet won't be able to do anything, you are already giving him strong antibiotics. What are you giving them for?

Hello! I've been giving him medicine to treat Coryza as his one eye seemed a little foamy and swollen.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

If liquid got into his lungs, massaging his crop would not help to get it out. The crop is part of the digestive system, not the respiratory. Just watch him for signs of pneumonia.

 

[Eggcessive]

It sounds like he aspirated. Do not massage a crop when they are choking, since it may force fluid and food back up into the airway. He may have MG instead of coryza. Coryza stinks as well as causing more severe symptoms. Testing is the only way to know which. Either disease will affect any other chickens in your flock, since he will be a carrier. Then you would have to close your flock, and never sell or give away birds or hatching eggs. People should not sell you a bird with a respiratory disease. I would return him.

 

[PossiblyPekin]

It sounds like he aspirated. Do not massage a crop when they are choking, since it may force fluid and food back up into the airway. He may have MG instead of coryza. Coryza stinks as well as causes more severe symptoms. Testing is the only way to know which. Either disease will affect any other chickens in your flock, since he will be a carrier. Then you would have to close your flock, and never sell or give away birds or hatching eggs. People should not sell you a bird with a respiratory disease. I would return him.

I took my birds to the vet, all 8 of them and my whole flock is healthy! The vet noticed he had something stuck in his eye which caused some irritation.

We ordered vaccines and will be vaccinating all my birds next week Monday he's also much better and the little bit of medicine he choked on, has since come out I assume. I also got a tube for any future issues to avoid the silly mistake I made.

 

[Eggcessive]

If the rooster’s eye was foamy and slightly swollen, that doesn’t sound perfectly normal. Has that gone away completely? A foamy eye can come and go. Dirt or even a seed pod caught in the eye can cause similar symptoms. Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) is a common disease found in some backyard flocks, and is also found in wild birds. Are you still giving an antibiotic? It is good that you were able to see and a vet. The vet can test the chicken by swabbing his nasopharyngeal, and sending the sample off for PCR testing. There are a few labs, such as Zoologix, that do that, and you can also check with your state vet lab.

 

[PossiblyPekin]

If the rooster’s eye was foamy and slightly swollen, that doesn’t sound perfectly normal. Has that gone away completely? A foamy eye can come and go. Dirt or even a seed pod caught in the eye can cause similar symptoms. Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) is a common disease found in some backyard flocks, and is also found in wild birds. Are you still giving an antibiotic? It is good that you were able to see and a vet. The vet can test the chicken by swabbing his nasopharyngeal, and sending the sample off for PCR testing. There are a few labs, such as Zoologix, that do that, and you can also check with your state vet lab.

Yeah his eye is perfectly fine today. I'm giving them a supplement called Virukill in their water, my vet said to just keep them on a steady dose of it since it helps prevent mycoplasma both in the coops and in the birds. I have to say it's been very dry and cold here in South Africa so I'm wondering if that'd be the reason behind the sniffles and sneezes. I know dust and wind is a horrible mixt when it comes to chickens. I'm half tempted to give them all some antibiotics in their water just to prevent pneumonia as a whole but I don't want to overdo it.

 

[Eggcessive]

I don’t recommend giving antibiotics to chickens without symptoms. Giving antibiotics won’t prevent getting diseases, but it can help treat symptoms when they get one. Mycoplasma is only treated with certain antibiotics, since the organism does not have a cell wall. The ones mostly used used are Tylosin, tiamulin/Denagard, oxytetracycline, erythromycin, and enrofloxacin. The symptoms do not sound like coryza, but coryza is usually treated with sulfa antibiotics. Cold weather can bring on stress and symptoms. Knowing your location now helps, since it may not be as easy to obtain testing or antibiotics there. Hopefully, your flock will be healthy. Use caution when bringing in new birds, since they could be carriers of a disease that another bird in their previous home had. If one bird has a respiratory disease, then all birds can become carriers, even if they don’t show symptoms.

 

[PossiblyPekin]

I don’t recommend giving antibiotics to chickens without symptoms. Giving antibiotics won’t prevent getting diseases, but it can help treat symptoms when they get one. Mycoplasma is only treated with certain antibiotics, since the organism does not have a cell wall. The ones mostly used used are Tylosin, tiamulin/Denagard, oxytetracycline, erythromycin, and enrofloxacin. The symptoms do not sound like coryza, but coryza is usually treated with sulfa antibiotics. Cold weather can bring on stress and symptoms. Knowing your location now helps, since it may not be as easy to obtain testing or antibiotics there. Hopefully, your flock will be healthy. Use caution when bringing in new birds, since they could be carriers of a disease that another bird in their previous home had. If one bird has a respiratory disease, then all birds can become carriers, even if they don’t show symptoms.

Thank you so much! I think they might just have a "cold" but I'll only treat it if it seems like it's causing actual discomfort. They're all eating and drinking fine so I'm not too worried. I'm so scared of them building up a tolerance against antibiotics and medicine in general. So I'm always hesitant to just push medicine onto them.

My dad says it's sometimes okay to not treat something to help them build some sense of 'immunity' so I try to just let them get better on their own if they can. But that's only for mild illnesses of course!