Chickens dying - rasping breath, gaping mouth, nasal discharge one day and dead the next

[MistiRose]

I am in some desperate need of help.
1) 5-6 month pullets, 5-8 lbs
2) I purchased eight 5-6 month old pullets at a sale on Saturday from different sellers. Everyone seemed active, healthy, eating and drinking the first three days and now they are sick. Two have died and others are failing. Symptoms include rattling when they breathe, lethargy and staying in the coop all day roosting. Birds seem to have some caked fluid on their nostrils/beaks.
3) Three night ago the first bird was obviously raspy, by morning it was dead.
4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms? Not yet but it seems to be spreading from bird to bird with a new death each day.
5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones? No.
6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation. I bought these birds at a sale barn and I’m sure that they came in contact with something infectious.
7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all. Free choice layer feed and water.
8) How does the poop look? Normal
9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far? I injected penicillin in the breast of one bird last night and it died in my hands.
10 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? I want to treat completely myself. I would prefer to avoid injections if at all possible since I seem to have killed one of my sick birds. I used a 22 g needle and injected approximately one inch left of the breast bone into the breast tissue. Approximately, 3-4 seconds after the injection the bird started squawking, collapsed and died.
12) Describe the housing/bedding in use. Coop with open windows on three sides and a bermuda grass 15 x 15 chain link run

Any advice on treatment protocols would be sincerely appreciated.

 

[Kiki]

Place me on ignore and leave me alone, please.

Your behavior is borderline trolling.

This is not trolling.

You've made a serious statement, I'm simply asking where you heard this information.

 

[duluthralphie]

This is not trolling.

You've made a serious statement, I'm simply asking where you heard this information.

Here is what the USDA says:

Maybe the USDA forgot to mention Utah

 

[Kiki]

So.Cal, No.Cal, Utah and now Nevada.

Where have you seen that it is now in Nevada?
I haven't heard this before.
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ou...ease-information/avian/virulent-newcastle/vnd

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry about your chickens. Buying birds at a sale, especially from multiple sellers is a serious risk of bringing in contagious diseases. The respiratory diseases are especially contagious sometimes within days. Infectious coryza, MG, infectious bronchitis, ORT, and ILT are common ones.

I would suspect coryza, or a combination of 2 diseases, but you can get that confirmed with testing or by getting a necropsy on a bird that has died or been put down, and having the state poultry vet do a necropsy. Unfortunately, all birds have probably been exposed. You can try treating, but getting a diagnosis is important to use the right antibiotic. This can be a reason to cull all birds and start over in a few weeks or months with new birds, or treat them and close your flock to any new birds.

People who bring sick birds or carriers to a poultry sale risk infecting healthy birds who are also there. Very sorry that you are dealing with this problem. @casportpony is very good with knowledge about treating this sort of thing. You are correct that Newcastles is probably not the problem, since it is confined to So. California and outside of the US, but other diseases can be pretty devastating to a flock.

 

[casportpony]

If antibiotics are useless, is there nothing I can do to try and save the birds that I have left?

So sorry for your losses. Is a vet an option?

It's possible that they have a bacterial infection, not a virus. Unfortunately, penicillin won't treat the majority of respiratory bacterial infections that poultry get (mycoplasma, E. Coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Infectious coryza,
Ornithobacterium rhinotracheale).

If you can't take them to a vet you could try a different antibiotic, like Tylan 50, Tylan 200, or oxytetracyline. Call you local feed stores and ask what cattle antibiotics they have.
Tylan 50 dose = 0.2 ml per pound of body weight orally 3-4 times a day.
Tylan 200 dose = 0.05 ml per pound of body weight orally 3-4 times a day.

If you have any leftover human, dog, or cat antibiotics, you could use those too. Just let me know what you can find and I will look up the dose for you.

This place does testing on live birds via trachea swabs:
https://www.zoologix.com/avian/Datasheets/PoultryRespiratoryPanel.htm

 

[Eggcessive]

I would think you could definitely draw back blood on an IV...
...but not an IM,unless you hit a vein.

You should always draw back on needles on any injection, subcutaneous, IM, or IV, just to make sure you are not in a vein, since some drugs are not supposed to be given in the vein. Of course, that is how you tell if you are in a vein giving something IV, or if the IV is still working and not infiltrated. Most injections on chickens should be given into the breast muscle only 1/4 inch deep. Using the shortest needl possible is good, but it needs to be large enough gauge for the medicine (or thick medicine) to go through.

 

[Cyprus]

When you did the injection did you pull back on the plunger to check for blood?

It sounds like you have a respiratory virus which antibiotics are useless against. Where are you located roundabout? This is important.

It sounds a lot like Viral Newcastle Disease which is very bad news right now. Can you have someone come out and test your birds asap? Call your state veterinarian.

 

[MistiRose]

Sorry about your chickens. Buying birds at a sale, especially from multiple sellers is a serious risk of bringing in contagious diseases. The respiratory diseases are especially contagious sometimes within days. Infectious coryza, MG, infectious bronchitis, ORT, and ILT are common ones.

I would suspect coryza, or a combination of 2 diseases, but you can get that confirmed with testing or by getting a necropsy on a bird that has died or been put down, and having the state poultry vet do a necropsy. Unfortunately, all birds have probably been exposed. You can try treating, but getting a diagnosis is important to use the right antibiotic. This can be a reason to cull all birds and start over in a few weeks or months with new birds, or treat them and close your flock to any new birds.

People who bring sick birds or carriers to a poultry sale risk infecting healthy birds who are also there. Very sorry that you are dealing with this problem. @casportpony is very good with knowledge about treating this sort of thing. You are correct that Newcastles is probably not the problem, since it is confined to So. California and outside of the US, but other diseases can be pretty devastating to a flock.

Thank you for responding. I am 100% sure that I brought this home from the sale with me. I even think I know which bird was sick, in hindsight. It wasn’t obvious but this bird was quiet and let me pick it up with no protest - I just assumed that it had been somebody’s pet. It was the one bird I bought just because I thought it was adorable even though I knew it wouldn’t be a great layer (a splash Tolbunt).

I don’t have the heart to cull all of the birds. They are quarantined away from my juvenile birds and I am being very careful not to cross contaminate the two groups. I shouldn’t have bought them and just waited on my young birds to grow up. Will I be able to combine the two groups in a couple of months or will my sick group remain carriers and infect my juveniles? I’ve raised them from chicks that I purchased from an NPIP flock in NC and I wouldn’t want to do anything that would put them at risk.

If so have another death I will refrigerate that bird and track down the state veterinarian.

Best,
Misti

 

[Kiki]

Just in case you need it...your state lab is listed here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/necropsy-and-disease-testing-lab-info.1236884/