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Thanks, I am hoping for the best, but fear the worst.
I currently don't have any sickies, the last one had to be put down this morning (a bantam black tailed white jap cockerel- beautiful bird). I am afraid the rest might be carriers, though (I suspect IB, but have not confirmed. I burned the carcasses, don't have time to take them over 100 miles to be tested).
I can still sell hatching eggs, since IB doesn't carry over to the eggs, but my flock is closed, now, except for what I hatch out myself.
I really only had four that got sick - two of which only had a snotty nose for a day, then got better. The bantam cochin that had to be put down looked like he was getting better (just had snotty nose, too) but one morning he was laying on his side and could not get up or move at all. Still breathing, but I figured that was it for him, so I culled him.
The young Jap had swollen sinuses. No stink, so I don't think it is coryza, but his eyes swelled shut, and he could not find the food or water. His eyes were even leaking puss (sorry for the graphic depiction).
The odd thing is, no other birds are sick - no symptoms at all. They were in a pen with at least 20 other bantams.
I am watching carefully to see if any others get swollen sinuses, or begin to get snotty.
It's just so depressing when you realize that bringing in a couple of healthy looking birds (that were more than likely carriers) can spell disaster for your flock. How do you protect from that? Other than never buying another strange bird, there is no way to tell if a healthy seeming bird is a carrier of something horrible. Even quarantine won't give you any clues if they don't show any signs.
So, from now on I'll hatch any chickens that add to my flock, and hope they don't catch some lingering thing from the rest of them who are running around.
Other than killing off all of my chickens (a little over 50 of them) I don't have any other choice but to not sell chicks or chickens to anyone.
I still just don't understand how two can get so sick they die within a week, and the rest are fine and dandy - no signs of illness at all.
the bright side is I have some standard cochin eggs set to hatch next sunday - I hope I have at least a trio out of the 8 good cochins eggs that are left.
meri