Bubbly breathing and bad smell

[TheChickenQueen]

Please help! I just realized that my chickens seem to have caught some kind of respiratory illness; when I pick up most of them they make a bubbly sound when they breath and I can feel it in their lungs. Then many of them have discharge and dust drying onto their nostrils and when I picked some of the gunk away they had this awful, rancid, infection like smell and one of them had mostly clear fluid come out. I've also noticed that lately there seems to be more runny poop and diarrhea then normal.

I am at a total loss as what to do since I was going to downsize my flock but then this popped up, and then with the new medication/drug laws I'm not sure what I could get for them, or even what they have or how to treat it.

 

[Eggcessive]

It sounds like it could be coryza. You could sacrifice one of the birds, and have a necropsy done by your state vet to identify the disease. You can treat symptoms of coryza with antibiotics, but it is a chronic disease that can come back again and again, making carriers of the whole flock. If I had coryza, I would cull my flock, then wait several weeks to get new chicks from a hatchery. Buying birds from others is how coryza can get into a flock, especially from poultry swaps. Tylan 50 injectable is about the only antibiotic available from feed stores. Vets can prescribe others such as sulfa antibiotics, but every bird that comes into a flock with coryza will be exposed. Sorry that you may be dealing with this.

 

[TheChickenQueen]

Do you think chicks from these birds could be carriers even if they never come into direct contract with the parents after the eggs are collected? I have some 2 week old chicks, a duckling(who lives with the chicks) and some chicks due to hatch in two weeks and I'm not sure what to do with them. Especially since the chicks have come in contact with things that have been around the parents. I've been planning on building some new coops this year since my current one is around 70 years old and is a wreck that needs to be torn down.
I've been trying to get rarer and more interesting breeds besides the average old hatchery stock but I guess if that isn't possible

 

[Eggcessive]

Trying to get rarer birds is a common way many people bringing birds into their flocks get diseases. New birds should always be quarantined for at least a month, but even then they can be contagious. I will not ever buy birds from another breeder again, after learning about so many others buying sick or carrier birds. The best thing you can do is contact your state vet or poultry lab, and send or take in 2-3 sick birds and get a necropsy done. Most will euthanize, and may do all 2 or 3 for the same cost as one. That way you can find out if you have one disease or more. Frequently with respiratory diseases, there may be infectious bronchitis, MG, coyza, or ILT or a combination. Each disease can be a secondary disease of another. Once you have an answer on what disease you have, then you will be able to know if it can be passed on to offspring through hatching eggs or heredity. MG (mycoplasma gallisepticum) is the only respiratory disease passed through eggs. Leukosis and avian encephalomyelitis (AE) are other non-respiratory diseases that are hereditary or passed through the hatching egg. Some states offer low cost necropsy, but if the cost is high, you could ask if there is any way to waive the cost because of the problems you are having.