Changing treatment for chicken with respiratory distress

[MaeM]

Hi. The vet is treating one of my chickens with itraconazole for an alleged aspergillosia. But honestly she was feeling better when I was treating her with doxycycline + enrofloxacin.

The thing is, she probably has MG and that combination of antibiotics didn't cure her. But I want to know if maybe I can give her a maintenance dose of enrofloxacin to keep her symptoms as mild as possible.

She is making a lot of noise when she breathes...

 

[azygous]

It's best you not combine the three drugs since they can decrease the effectiveness of the one the vet prescribed.

What you might do to give her relief is to set her up in a crate with a vaporizer or mister with an antifungal/ antibacterial agent such as Oxine or Betadine mixed in directed over her so she's breathes it in.

 

[MaeM]

It's best you not combine the three drugs since they can decrease the effectiveness of the one the vet prescribed.

What you might do to give her relief is to set her up in a crate with a vaporizer or mister with an antifungal/ antibacterial agent such as Oxine or Betadine mixed in directed over her so she's breathes it in.

The thing is that I don't think the itraconazole is doing anything. It's been 15 days now, and she is getting worse. And the vet says it is aspergillosis based on the fact that antibiotics didn't cure her the last time. But what if it is a resistant bacteria? He recognized that fungal infections are not common in chickens that are kept in good conditions.

 

[azygous]

You should discuss this with your vet and not try to second guess and stray into other meds on your own. It would be legitimate to discuss particular antibiotics you are interested in trying after seeing no improvement for this long on the itraconazole. There are alternative combos that treat both fungal and bacterial infection.

Has the vet done a throat swab to see what pathogens might be present? That would be a good step. Knowing which bacterium you are dealing with can allow the chicken to be treated with the most effective med that can target the cell walls of a particular bacterium where other meds may have no effect.

Meanwhile, a mister with Oxine or Betadine will do no harm and could be beneficial.

 

[Aunt Angus]

Is there another vet you could visit for a 2nd opinion?

 

[MaeM]

Is there another vet you could visit for a 2nd opinion?

I'd love to; it's not even easy to talk to this guy. But he is the only avian specialist here. And perhaps because of that, he is expensive AF. But he says he has no resources to -like azygous says- identify the pathogen. He said it could be MG because I had another chicken who apparently had MG (?). When the antibiotics didn't work, he changed his diagnosis to aspergillosis, he changed her medication, and the hen passed from having symptoms but still being able to jump over the pots and take baths to hiding in a bush all day long.

I guess that you are my second opinion because even though he is supposed to be the expert, I don't know if he knows what he is doing.

 

[azygous]

These folks will send you the testing materials and do the test. Zoologix Inc 9811 Owensmouth Ave, STE 4, Chatsworth, CA, 91311-9547 818-717-8880 www.zoologix.com This test is around $100 plus around $25 for the test kit.

You will need to specify you want to test for MG. This will rule it out or confirm it. Then you will know if it's in your flock or not.