Chickens have some sort of respiratory disease - need advice

[smr1181]

Long time listener, first time caller. I HAD a small flock of 8 hens, all between a year and 15mos. old - (2) Ameraucanas, (3) RIR, and (3) barred rocks. I purchased the Ameraucanas in early May, kept them quarantined. They've been with my original 6 since early June with no issues. I live in southwest OH, and the weather here has been extremely hot (for this area); we're talking 105 with the heat index, and we've also had a lot of rain.

I came out Tuesday morning to give my chickens fresh water and one of them was laying dead in the run. Admittedly, my kids had mentioned hearing a couple of them cough a few days prior, but I sat out for a while and heard nothing. However, on Tuesday, I heard 2 more coughing, so I immediately removed them from the rest into a separate pen. I picked up Tylan 50 and also some Ivermectin as they'd never been wormed, and I was getting various information [from multiple posts on this page] about that it could be and dosed them all (except no Tylan for the Ameraucanas). Since then, I had to put one RIR down yesterday morning. The day before she was coughing very hard, and yesterday I came out to her with what looked to be a prolapsed throat and white foam around her eyes.

The rest of them seem okay today, except one more RIR who has the foamy eye and a rattle when she breathes. She is still up moving around and eating and drinking.

I did call the OH Dept. of Agriculture about getting them tested to find out exactly what they have, but they said they need either live bird blood or to do a necropsy on a "fresh dead bird." I've contacted a local vet who deals with poultry and am going to have them at minimum draw blood on RIR that's sickest now.

Here's my question:
1. Is it possible the Ameraucanas spread something to my existing flock, since they seem unaffected by this?

2. My neighbor recently mulched her landscaping, and a few of the hens got out and were scratching in it. It may have been treated so could that have caused these issues?

3. If the sick birds comes back with MG, or ILT or God forbid avian flu, then:
a. Should I have them all tested? If they all test positive, should I cull the whole flock even if they don't show signs of illness?
b. I'm building an expanded Wichita cabin coop, do I move the carrier bird to the new coop? If I do, when the time comes to replace with new hens, if I put the new in that same coop, will they get sick?
c. Am I able to give my old coop away to someone who wants it if its well-cleaned? Or will their chickens get sick also?

TIA - I really appreciate it! Feeling pretty helpless right about now.

 

[rebrascora]

My thoughts are that it might be aspergillosis which is a fungal infection of the respiratory tract. The fact that you have hot weather and rain and they have been foraging in the neighbour's recently mulched beds may be relevant to that, so not necessarily chemical issue but fungal. I read a post here on BYC a few years ago about a couple who put reasonably fresh wood chippings (not shavings but chippings from tree surgery etc) down in their run and lost more than half their flock to aspergillosis as a result. It might be worth sacrificing a sick bird for necropsy to get a diagnosis. Or you might try an oxine vapourizer which I have read may be beneficial.

 

[smr1181]

Wow - thank you! I immediately jumped to worst case scenario as far as what it could be. And I've been leaning the same way regarding the necropsy.

 

[rebrascora]

I'm not sure a blood sample would show up a fungal infection of the respiratory tract. It would be worth asking the vet or Ag Dept. about it.
If possible I would submit a bird direct to the diagnostics lab either in person or via overnight shipping on ice for necropsy. It will be significantly cheaper than submitting through a vet who will usually take a significant fee just in handling and processing, for something that you could do yourself.