breathing hard and eye swollen

[js8cop]

i am new to the chicken family. I have several chickens died and several have one swollen eyes and hard time breathing. They all stop laying about two weeks ago should have new something was up then some died and now some have these sympthoms. wil they ever lay again if so how long will i have to wait for this tric antibiotic gets out of their system i am still treating all cant seperate all of the sick ones do to not having the space. can use a little guidence hear. i have also cleaned out the white crap out of the really bad ones eyes. i also read that this flock might be carriers of this thing if so will the eggs be carriers and get us sick. i know i have a ot of questions but i am totally clueless
i havent lose any in two day but more are laying arond. i started the treatment friday i hope its like a cold in our home and it will have to take its course not sure though.

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

Wow, this sounds like a very bad situation. You really need to find out exactly what they have. Where are you located? Because all states have a State Vet and many areas will have resources for free or low cost necropsies. So when a chicken dies of unknown causes, this can be a great resource. Are you able to get one of the chickens to a vet?

Here is a link that lists common poultry diseases: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/ps/ps04400.pdf There are many such links, just google "poultry disease chart".

The two things i have read consistently for treatment of respiratory illness in chickens is Tylan 50. You can buy it as an injectable or water soluble to put in the drinking water. Then there is Denegard. i think that goes in the water too, but i have never used that.

Depending on what this illness is, your hens may recover but might be carriers for the rest of their life. That means you will need to close your flock - no new chickens in, no chickens rehomed. They may still lay, and eating the eggs should not be a problem, but you wouldn't want to hatch chicks from the eggs.

The first and most important thing, though, is to know exactly what you are dealing with. If you can not get one of the sick ones to a vet, then please try to get a necropsy if you lose anymore.

 

[js8cop]

what is a necropsy? i cant afford a vet. The feed store says that this is common in mississippi and that this Duramycin -10 should take care of it but i dont know that its working

 

[lemondsm]

A necropsy is an animal autopsy. Good luck to you. I hope they get better. We have a couple quarantined for similar symptoms. I am trying duramyacin, vitamins and electrolytes.