Bronchial/respritory ilnesses- origin and cure

[hf chickens]

I am having recurring respritory problems in my flock, coughing, trouble breathing and loss of appetite. They always die, despite antibiotic in the water. Why do I continue to have this problem? I have a small, isolated flock-free range. Help!

 

[squirt99]

Have just had this in two of my chickens, vet gave me some wormer and they have improved. Symptoms were coughing, sneezing wheezing and extending the neck out and yawning a lot which I found out later was due to not getting enough air. More than likely its gape worm, I was given ivomectin for chickens, since worming which has to be repeated three weeks later has definitely improved their symptoms. You can't eat the eggs for three weeks though. Even though I have read heaps of people do eat them. Hope this helps.

 

[zoeee]

yes, i had the same experience as squirt - i had an antibiotic but it wasnt until i also added a COMPLETE wormer (avitrol) that eddy really got better. i do suspect her lack of air was perhaps the gapeworm blocking her throax... once wormed, she became well again... you need to worm once then again in three weeks... im not sure how many times (x1?) per year... i would do it again if i thought it could save her life... i think she seemed near to death before the antibios, oxygen tank and finally, was wormed... it was only that i googled and read up on gapeworm that i realised her symptoms were similiar to having a gapeworm infestation... and at the time of her treatment even the vet didn't think of it. i administered it a day or two later... all good after that!

 

[realsis]

not sure why your having this issue but if it comes up again don't use the water soluable antibotic as its slower acting and harder to get a good concentrated dose do try tylan 50 injectable. larger birds its 1/2 cc once a day for five days. smaller birds its 1/4 cc once a day for 5 days.it can be administered at nape of neck or in brest. the injection enters into the blood stream quicker and at a higer concentration than possiable with water soluable antibotic where with the water dose the concentration is dependant on amount consumed and during illness that could be very little. so give the tylan a try if this occurs again. the bottle will say for cattle or swine but poultry owners have excellent results with this for respatory illness. i keep it on hand always incase i need it. hope this was helpful! best of luck to you!

 

[dawg53]

Gapeworm are rare in chickens. Even if it were gapeworm, your birds would be dead in no time. Most respiratory diseases mimic symptoms of gapeworm. An exam of feces under a microscope would determine if gapeworm oocycts were present (if the bird lived that long.)
Most likely you're dealing with some type of respiratory disease. Surviving birds are carriers of whatever disease it is. Antibiotics may treat the symptoms of the disease, but the birds are never cured of the disease. When surviving birds are stressed, even after treatment, symptoms will reappear. The antibiotics that were initially used to treat the symptoms might not be effective due to the disease being resistant to the antibiotic from previous usage. Then, a more powerful antibiotic will be required to treat the sick birds. There will eventually come a time that nothing will work and alot of time and money wasted. Virusus are unaffected by antibiotics anyway. It's best to cull birds with respiratory diseases.
Covey Rise Plantation is the expert on gapeworms. He has dealt with them many times: Here's a link, read posts #13 & #14.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/602699/worming-chickens/10#post_7931055

 

[Lavendise]

I can tell you from experience and from advice from Mr.Dawg, the advice he is giving you is spot on. I totally agree that if there is any respiratory conditions that are inherent in your birds, a little bit of stress is sure to bring it out. In my case, very expensive birds were sent thru the post and obviously that is stressful. And sure enough, shortly upon arriving they developed the sneezing,coughing, running nose. I tried everything. I injected them as prescribed by Dawg with Tylon. That was about 4 or 5 weeks ago. They are still having respiratory problems. I have resigned myself to know it is not going to go away. One bird did die from being unable to breathe.
I am beginning to wonder if there is one single bird out there that does not have some sort of respiratory condition hiding under their wing.
I have bird from different parts of the country and I have been diligent about keeping them separated and hand washing and blah blah blah.
Even birds from 5 month ago, 6 months ago, from Ohio, from Washington state, from planet Venus, can cough and sneeze for a period of time. None of those have died. They eventually recover. But like Dawg states...they are carriers.
Yes, as Dawg suggests, to eliminate the whole problem, kill them all. Or should I use the other word, Cull.
Some people have no problem with that process. Sadly, I just can't bring myself to kill my pets.
Please listen to Dawg's advice. In my opinion, he is better than by Avian Vet.