Chickens were sick, scrap breeding program?

[ethingtonart]

So, I brought home an illness (I think) from chickenstock on August 1st here in Indiana. I posted on August 10th... that my 5 month old Easter Egger, over the past two days, has been making a wheezing or rattling sound when she pants. The sound has been coming and going. A few days after that some of our other chickens got runny noses, clear, no odor, they sneezed a few times, there was some head shaking, and I saw some evidence of runny poo. (I'm not sure that's related though because they were eating a lot of tomatoes at the time.) The Easter Egger was lethargic for about half a day (for only one day), and by the evening had recovered. There was no coughing, no loss of appetite, no facial swelling, and none of the others suffered a loss of energy.

I know I made a lot of mistakes by not quarantining the chickens that I brought home (they all appeared healthy) and by not quarantining my EE Ginger at the first sign if illness. I hope to not make more mistakes with my flock in the future so I need to ask where to go from here.

I had wanted to begin a breeding program with my flock next year, but obviously I don't know if that's wise considering that my birds had been sick. So what do I do now?

Could my birds have become infected from a bird that was vaccinated for newcastle? If this is the case, could I still breed them?

Is there such a thing as a "cold" in chickens that would not affect the flock in the future?

Can my flock be tested for infection with various diseases, and if so which diseases should I test for, and who should I have do the testing?

Thanks!
Debbie

 

[ginbart]

I can't help you with many of your questions but maybe one. Here in Pa we can call the Department of Agriculture and they can send someone to test them for you. They can test for various diseases. I would think if you tell them what the systems are they would know what to test for. Good luck with them.

 

[cthrash1]

Your state should have an agricultural dept that can test your birds. I've had two roos get sick once to the point that they were squeaking out their crows, no one else got it. I kept vetRX under their wings and along the front of their chests, and at night gave them a few drops down their throats... I also gave the antibiotics had to give it to the whole flock cause no place to keep the two roos separate from the rest, plus one of them was the head of the flock... Didn't want him to lose position. It could just be a respiratory infection... They can get those.

 

[ethingtonart]

So, I might try Purdue University. Maybe they could point me in the right direction for testing.

Luckily they are all better now, so if nothing else I am lucky to still have my beautiful birds!!