Chickens sneezing, smelly discharge

[moso121]

I am new to chickens and I have 2 of them that have been sneezing a lot, sound raspy sometimes when they breathe and have smelly discharge coming out of their noses. What kind of treatment do I need to do? They are around a month and a half old. Is there something I can buy at a farm supply store or do I need to take them to the vet? Thanks for any advice!

Shelly

 

[Guinea Goonie]

Smelly, bacterial like smell is a bad sign. It COULD be coryza.

Please do a search on this for some answers to your questions.

This has been well discussed on this forum.

Sorry for your troubles

rim

 

[max101]

My 8 chicks had coryza. You will always remember that smell they have around there face. If they have it the bacteria can never be cured. The birds become carriers and you can never introduce new birds as they may become infected. I gave mine back to the miserable person that sold them to me. Make sure you study up on all the different chicken respiratory problems as there are a few. Hopefully your chickens have something that is easy to treat. If it is coryza my advise is to get rid of them as you may transfer the bacteria to someone elses chicken innocently. Hope all goes well for you

 

[threehorses]

I agree this sounds like typical Coryza. They do become carriers thereafter so you'll want to keep them seperate or as only-birds as Coryza is quite contagious.

If you wish to treat it, Coryza is susceptible to Sulmet, or to a combination of Duramycin and Aureomycin. You should clean their discharges daily with sterile saline wash. You can do a sinus and eye-sinus flush with Tylan50 injectable to help. (PM me for instructions.) They must be treated for the absolute FULL course of the antibiotics, not a day less. Being carriers, they are susceptible to relapse. The disease is not vertically transmitted (via egg) but is horizontally (via contact, or 'fomite' including your shoes, clothes, etc - even taking the germs to the feed store when you go.)

You'll also want to give them vitamins daily... polyvisol twice a day via beak.
And probiotics daily - one capsule acidophilis or some Probios powder or paste daily. You can NOT use milk products or yogurt if you treat with the mycins. But you MUST use a probiotic (liver bacteria) to replace those they'll lose being treated for the nearly 14 days on the mycins, or 7-10 days on the Sulmet.

VetRx is also quite helpful for reducing the congestion, inflammation, and mucus. Mix a few drops of VetRx with an equal number of drops of very very hot water in a cup. Stir. Use q-tips to clean their nostrils, press into the opening in the roof of their beaks, and under each eye. Use a new q-tip end for each spot, a brand new q-tip when you switch birds.

It's possible you could take these babies to a vet, but I would still at the very LEAST recommend that you do the above listed non-medicinal support (yogurt, vitamins, VetRx). the vet trip will be a waste of money if they don't do a "culture and sensitivity", and they rarely volunteer to do one. So you have to ask for it. that will tell you exactly which bacteria it is and exactly which antibiotic to use. You must use an avian vet for this case if you use one.

 

[moso121]

Thank you to all who replied. I am going to do some reading up on the different bacterial infections chickens can have now that I have some ideas on what to look up. I really hope it isn't coryza...it doesn't sound good!

Threehorses- thanks for all the info, it's very helpful!

Shelly

 

[threehorses]

Quote:
You're very welcome. I just ask that when you read about the diseases, know that many disease share the same symptoms. You might start to ffear that your birds have exotic newcastles, or pullorum, or a number of very harmful disease. The best thing to do is find what the hallmarks are for each disease. Or get an avian vet to do a "culture and sensitivity" specifically on the bird's nasal secretions (you have to ask for this as sadly most vets just will treat without double checking, even good avian vets), or a necropsy on deceased birds.