Birds we purchased were older than we were told and sick - please help!

[CoopDeVille1]

Hi! I am a stay at home mom with 2 human babies and 35 chickens. My DH was trying to surprise me for my birthday and brought home 'pullets" - Poor, poor husband has wonderful intentions, but I am ready to strangle him for it because #1 several of the birds seem sick and one has a cloudy eye (Markes maybe?) and one of the super sweet Buff Orpingtons has a rattle in her chest. I have NO idea what to do. My place isn't very large and isn't set up to quarantine these new birds, however, I have quarantined the Buff and the other new birds free range far from my existing flock. I am a crazy animal lover and want to do the humane thing. I am at a total loss. I talked to my feed store and everyone there basically said its hard to introduce new birds to a flock, especially if they aren't coming from a safe breeder. I am totally beside myself because I just don't know what to do. I bought VetRx, but I don't even know what I am treating and if I should administer it to the whole flock now. Please help - any advice is really, truly appreciated. I don't want to loose my healthy flock of 26 girls because of these new birds. We have 1 - 12 week old Arucauna, a young Buff, probably same age (with the rattle), 3 barred rocks (one has the cloudy pupil/eye - no liquid/discharge), a White Sussex and a few other full grown hens. Thank you dearly for any help the can be offered.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I know this is hard to hear but if it were me, I would put all of the new ones down immediately.

Respiratory illness is something that in chickens is a disease, not a "cold." So if you are pretty sure they are sick with a respiratory disease then I'd not let them anywhere near my other chickens. Ever.

I am so sorry you are going through this.

Here is a respiratory ailments link- please pay special attention to Mycoplasma (MG):
http://www.amerpoultryassn.com/respiratory_disease.htm

A cloudy eye can be eyeworm, Mareks, or something else maybe.

Some people do keep a closed flock and just deal with respiratory disease with giving antibiotics but that is not something I'd want to do myself.