Susan Skylark
Songster
Rule 1 with poultry (and small children): don’t panic!
But even the professional do it. My son once woke up 3am with a temp of 104F and vomiting, I knew immediately he had either Ebola or appendicitis. Five minutes later once I was awake enough to think, we figured out he had a slight fever from a cold (normal for him), and he had insisted on footie pajamas and 3 big fluffy blankets besides. He was basically overheating and was fine once we cooled him down!
One chick with unilateral conjunctivitis doesn’t mean you have infectious coryza. The eye can only respond to insult and injury one way: all eye issues superficially look the same. Parasites are not high on the list, though really cool on TV. As long as everybody is thriving, please do not get on google and cull your entire flock after reading the first thing you find. Treat your conjunctivitis bird 3-5 times daily for a week with ophthalmic terramicin. Watch everybody else like a hawk. Quarantine isn’t going to help, whatever it is everybody has been exposed, you’ll just stress out the isolated bird. If it is just a mild respiratory infection, let it play out and move on with life. Every species has its ‘common cold and stomach flu’ type viruses. If you have dead, depressed, ill thrift birds, yes let’s work on a diagnosis, treatment and future prevention. Eating, happy birds that sneeze a bit for a few weeks isn’t a huge deal. But having a relationship with a vet is a good idea (submit dead birds for necropsy and ability to get antibiotics). Avian vets are very hard to find but maybe there’s a local mixed animal practitioner that is willing to look stuff up and work outside their comfort zone?
But even the professional do it. My son once woke up 3am with a temp of 104F and vomiting, I knew immediately he had either Ebola or appendicitis. Five minutes later once I was awake enough to think, we figured out he had a slight fever from a cold (normal for him), and he had insisted on footie pajamas and 3 big fluffy blankets besides. He was basically overheating and was fine once we cooled him down!
One chick with unilateral conjunctivitis doesn’t mean you have infectious coryza. The eye can only respond to insult and injury one way: all eye issues superficially look the same. Parasites are not high on the list, though really cool on TV. As long as everybody is thriving, please do not get on google and cull your entire flock after reading the first thing you find. Treat your conjunctivitis bird 3-5 times daily for a week with ophthalmic terramicin. Watch everybody else like a hawk. Quarantine isn’t going to help, whatever it is everybody has been exposed, you’ll just stress out the isolated bird. If it is just a mild respiratory infection, let it play out and move on with life. Every species has its ‘common cold and stomach flu’ type viruses. If you have dead, depressed, ill thrift birds, yes let’s work on a diagnosis, treatment and future prevention. Eating, happy birds that sneeze a bit for a few weeks isn’t a huge deal. But having a relationship with a vet is a good idea (submit dead birds for necropsy and ability to get antibiotics). Avian vets are very hard to find but maybe there’s a local mixed animal practitioner that is willing to look stuff up and work outside their comfort zone?
