Chick gasping for air

[Brahmachicken240]

Just after letting everyone out.

There’s 15 adult chickens and 10 chicks in the effected flock. I have a rooster flock of 8 roosters in one of our fields a bit further away from these ones, they don’t seem to have it.

 

[Eggcessive]

Your brahmas are always very pretty birds (I remember a previous thread with many pictures last year.) I would recommend that you don’t hatch any new chicks for a full year, just in case your flock has infectious bronchitis virus. It makes all survivors carriers for at least 5 months up to a year after recovery. That being said, the disease should be gone from the flock if IB is what you are dealing with. The symptoms your chickens have sound like IB, but could be a mild strain of MG. Gapeworm is probably not what is going on, but it is good that you are treating for that just in case.

I once had some chickens with suspected IB, and I went on to hatch new chicks. The new chickens got it, and passed it on to the next batch. So I stopped hatching chicks, and the disease disappeared.

IB is not a chronic disease as MG or coryza is, so the ones that get it do not get it again. But IB can damage the reproductive and kidneys, especially in young ones, and young ones are usually sicker. Hens may lay eggs with thin or wrinkled shells, or have many other shell quality problems.

 

[Brahmachicken240]

They’ve all stopped sneezing now
I’ll hold off hatching anymore chickens for a year, thanks for your help @Eggcessive

 

[Eggcessive]

I hope that your chickens stay healthy, and you don’t see any recurrence of the sneezing or illness.

 

[Brahmachicken240]

It’s back again, just after they finished molting.
There’s 2 with swelling around the eyes and there’s white bubbles in the corners of their eyes, Which are signs of MG right?
I got the medicine from the vets again and the swelling seems to be going down fast.

 

[Brahmachicken240]

I don’t think I’ll be hatching again after this for a long time, wouldn’t be a good idea to hatch birds with MG anyways. Id like to keep things small now and just have an enjoyable backyard flock of Brahmas after all the Illnesses They’ve gone through this year

 

[HuffleClaw]

Definitely don’t hatch from those birds... culling the entire flock and seriously disinfecting the coop is also an option, but I doubt you’d want to go that route. Hopefully your birds stay comfortable.

 

[Brahmachicken240]

Definitely don’t hatch from those birds... culling the entire flock and seriously disinfecting the coop is also an option, but I doubt you’d want to go that route. Hopefully your birds stay comfortable.

Yea I’m not going to hatch from these birds ever again. I don’t plan on culling them since we’ve gotten so attached.

 

[Eggcessive]

So sorry that the chronic respiratory disease MG seems to be what they have. It is possible for them to have had both IB and MG. I think that you are doing the right thing treating the sick birds and closing the flock. It would be vety hard to cull those beauties. I am letting my flock own slowly die off over the next few years before getting new chicks. It is the best way to handle a chronic illness in the flock, since hatching or adding new birds will only keep an illness going on and on. Mine are 6 to 8 years, only 4 of 15 were laying during summer before molting.

 

[Brahmachicken240]

4 days on medication and everyone’s pretty much back to normal.id like to know Is this going to be a recurring thing? Should I always have the medicine on hand ?