Am I ever going to get rid of this crap?? :(

[Badhbh]

CRD or Coryza, don't know which. There's no place here to test. I've been riding the gallimycin train for a little over a week now.I've seen an overall improvement, but I did lose several chicks in the process. I've invested so much time and energy in these birds, and i've hand raised every one. I love them. They're pets. I can't cull. But is this stuff EVER going to go away? Will every bird that hatches get the same disease? I don't think I can stand it if I have to worry about dead chicks and antibiotics for the rest of their lives. When it's gone will it be gone? I read about both of the diseases, and it's all very vague about how to get rid of it. "Biosecurity". "Carriers". I want to know how to make it go away.

 

[lovemychix]

I just wish I could help!! I know if my babes got sick it would be horrible.

Wish the best to you and your chickens that are ill. I'm a newbie and I have never gone through any sickness. I'm scared to bring any new chicken to my flock because I"m scared.

 

[herechickchick]

No neither one ever go away. With CRD you sometimes can get it under control and the birds back to normal except that they will ALWAYS be carriers and will infect new birds entering the flock. If it is Coryza, I know you do not want to hear this but you need to cull the entire flock and clean the coop with a bleach solution.

 

[Guinea Goonie]

You can try to find the birds that are showing symptoms and medicate them with Vet Rx. This will not make the disease go away, but will sooth the poor chickens that have it. Do not put it directly into the notrils, this is bad. Put it on thier combs and waddles, it soaks in pretty readily here. If they have an eye involved you can coat the eye, but do not drench it.

This disease will continually rear its ugly head in your flock. Close your flock, do not let other birds in or out for they are all carreirs once they get the symptoms and recover. The CRD (not Coryza) will lose potency with each recovery.

Usually, a lot of chickens have already been exposed to CRD. The mortallity rate is not extremly high. With Coryza the mortallity rate is apparently pretty bad.

I worry most about Cocci since the birds free range and then come back to the barn and roost in a fairly confined area. Treating your birds with antibiotics may be a bad thing. You are NOT treating the CRD becuase it is not a bacteria, it is a virus. You are ONLY treating the secondary bacterial infections if in fact there are any.

I watch my flock with an extreme eye. I watch every bird at night and I see who is not getting off thier roost for the morning dash to the barn door and thrown scratch and run to the waterers.

Some chickens are just late risers and they take their time and avoid the rush. I pretty much know these guys. A good number of my flock stay in the two wire mesh stalls (about 12x12 ). When I open the doors they come running out. The others are roosting in the rafters or on top of the stalls. These guys are on the floor and in a dash for the door as soon as i open up the barn. The day I see listless birds will be the sadist day of my life.

You will always loose a few birds, especially if you have a good many of them. Some get old or egg bound or get a bad crop etc.
The best thing you can do is just start reading and learning all you can about chicken diseases and thier outward sypmtoms.

It is sometimes very difficult to know what you are treating so you really should be careful of giving anitbiotics less you find yourself with a bacteria that become resistant.

 

[GigiBagADonuts]

Nothing to add just wanted to give ya a hug..Going thru the same thing..
Brightest blessings to you & yours

 

[Badhbh]

Well.. I guess that's that then.

No more chickens until these are gone. The Seramas that i'm trying to hatch will be isolated from the rest and under tight quarantine for life. When these are all gone i'll scrub it all with bleach and salt the earth so to speak, and start over.

 

[MrsSmitho]

HUGE HUGS!!!!

we have Coryza also...it plain sucks!!

I have had to cull 5 out of 54 so far...

below are some reading links sent by "speckledhen"...they are very informative!!

Hey, rimshoes????? have you read anything about the "new" treatment Oxide?? just curious.

I would hate to start all over, but it may take culling the whole flock...I have to say, I will have to go one by one, can't stand the thought of a mass slaughter.

Especially since the barred rocks seem to be not getting it at all...we'll see.

thanks for the info, my heart goes out to all us "newbys" who hadn't a clue about this mess.

It is very frustrating.

http://www.shagbarkbantams.com/page22.htm
http://www.shagbarkbantams.com/ib.htm
http://www.shagbarkbantams.com/laryng.htm
http://www.shagbarkbantams.com/page11.htm

good day to everybody!!

Kim

 

[Guinea Goonie]

Thank you for the URLs. I do wish specklehen would chime in here.
She is the one who opened my eyes on the antibiotics. I never used them all that much. When I wanted to save a prized bird I would isolate them, but I was using the antibiotics a bit to much and the application was a bit wrong.

I have since had a lenghtly talk with my avian vet and I basically got a tongue thrashing about the antibiotics. What it boiled down to was that I would be better off to loose a few birds than become the proud parent of an resistant strain of bacteria that would most certianly kill my entire flock and maybe the entire counties. He was really serious about this.


This morning I noticed ONE hen that has been sick that was not doing well. One out of well I lost count is not bad, but darn if it is always the one you really give a crud about. I did treat one of the wild hens with Vet Rx and she is doing pretty good now. Today I am going to Walley World and am getting some Poly vi sol and see if this will not do any good at all.

I only cull my birds if they get to the point of being miserable. It drives me nuts to know that some birds will actually get well, maybe get the crud again (less severe) and then get well. These birds are the ones that have a good resistance to the disease, but now they are carriers.

BTY, not all of my birds get the disease. Some seem to wiz right throught the bad weather and all they do is pull a foot up at night and they are good to go.

 

[MrsSmitho]

Thanks! That is awesome about the antis...I have been putting it off due to what I have read on here.

So, what do you know about eating the meat from a sick bird???

I read NOT to eat if it is CRD...but what about coryza??? I had rather "dispose" than eat if there is ANY chance of bad stuff for us...not worth it.

But it still pains me to throw away good meat

I have been giving the whole coop electrolyte/vitamins, and I really think it is helping. It is very inexpensive and one bag is lasting a loonnnggg time

hope all "the babes" get better!!

Kim

 

[MrsSmitho]

Hey ya!
As an update, we are Coryza outbreak free for 2+ days running!!

I have the whole coop on vit/ele, and have used no antis...

Will update when I find and use the Oxine treatment.

Kim