Common Cold Medicine for Chickens?

[chloeg001]

Hi all my flock is currently having a cold going around. It consist of sneezing and congested breathing, with one starting to walk slow and show signs of not feeling well today. I’ve debated on getting Vet Rx from TSC but I’ve read strong mixed reviews on it (mainly being negative). It doesn’t help this Georgia weather has went from freezing at night to now almost being 70 in the day. I did also treat my flock for 5-days with corid because I happened to see worms in poop. Their poops are consisting of runny or solid and green with some droppings being a dark brown almost black. Is there any form of a common cold medicine I could treat them all with? I would have a vet come out to inspect my entire flock but I can’t afford that and I’m not sure how I would even being to fit 15 chickens in my car. Thanks!

 

[Eggcessive]

First of all, Corid is for the treatment of coccidiosis, an intestinal infection from the soil that affects young birds. It will not treat worms. For most chicken worms, albendazole or 10% fenbendazole (SafeGuard Liquid Goat Wormer) are the best treatments.

Chickens do not get colds, but they can get viruses or bacterial respiratory diseases, such as infectious bronchitis, MG/mycoplasma, coryza, or ILT. Have you added any new birds lately? What are all of the symptoms you are seeing (such as watery or bubbly eye, mucus from the beak or drainage from a nostril, cough or sneeze, gasping, bad odor from the beak, etc?) Viruses usually run their course, and bacterial diseases may respond to Tylosin and some other antibiotics. Vet RX is about as effective as Vicks vapor rub, and has no antibiotic properties.

 

[chloeg001]

First of all, Corid is for the treatment of coccidiosis, an intestinal infection from the soil that affects young birds. It will not treat worms. For most chicken worms, albendazole or 10% fenbendazole (SafeGuard Liquid Goat Wormer) are the best treatments.

Chickens do not get colds, but they can get viruses or bacterial respiratory diseases, such as infectious bronchitis, MG/mycoplasma, coryza, or ILT. Have you added any new birds lately? What are all of the symptoms you are seeing (such as watery or bubbly eye, mucus from the beak or drainage from a nostril, cough or sneeze, gasping, bad odor from the beak, etc?) Viruses usually run their course, and bacterial diseases may respond to Tylosin and some other antibiotics. Vet RX is about as effective as Vicks vapor rub, and has no antibiotic properties.

Thank you for that info in regard to corid, I will definitely keep that in mind. I did add 2 new chickens, from an auction, to my one pen on December 12. I kept them contained the first week before letting them walk amongst the others. The symptoms are mainly sneezing, coughing, and congested breathing (it sounds like rattling).

 

[Folly's place]

Random source (auction) birds can bring anything to your flock, which is why we never bring birds home from such places.
@Eggcessive gave really good advice already. Hope your birds recover, and if things are going badly, having one or more tested for the various respiratory
diseases possible would help you manage your flock going forward. Meanwhile, no visitors, and clean everything that's been out there before you go anywhere else. It's quarantine time, an actual biosecurity effort.
Mary

 

[FrostRanger]

You want to quarantine new birds far away from the flock for at least month in case they are carrying any diseases. People have lost entire flocks from failing to quarantine. Definitely don't use human cold medication, it doesn't even do anything beyond masking symptoms in humans and it may be actively harmful for the birds. It definitely sounds like they caught some sort of respiratory disease. I would reach out to your state's poultry extension for testing especially if you end up losing birds (hopefully not though). Do know some respiratory diseases will make birds lifelong carriers even after they recover from the symptoms

 

[chloeg001]

You want to quarantine new birds far away from the flock for at least month in case they are carrying any diseases. People have lost entire flocks from failing to quarantine. Definitely don't use human cold medication, it doesn't even do anything beyond masking symptoms in humans and it may be actively harmful for the birds. It definitely sounds like they caught some sort of respiratory disease. I would reach out to your state's poultry extension for testing especially if you end up losing birds (hopefully not though). Do know some respiratory diseases will make birds lifelong carriers even after they recover from the symptoms

Thank you. I will be sure to do that. I do plan to take them to this vet I’ve gone to before that treats livestock. I just had surgery and can’t drive with the pain meds I’m taking. I’m doing what I can. I appreciate the comments! I care deeply for my chickens and want to make sure they are healthy and happy.

 

[Eggcessive]

Keep watching for the bubbles in an eye on one side or both, nasal drainage, swollen eyelid, normal or bad odor, etc. That can give a clue as to which disease they have. Most of the diseases make every bird in the flock a carrier of the disease for life, but infectious bronchitis virus will cause them to be carriers for 5 months to a year after all birds are free of symptoms. MG, coryza, and ILT will make carriers for life. There are a few national labs who will send you swabs to collect from the throats of your chickens and send back to the lab for a PCR test for various diseases. Vetdna (RAL) and Zoologix are 2 labs that I know of, and you could probably get 2-3 birds tested fairly reasonable. But those birds must be having symptoms when you take the swabs. I will post some links.
https://www.vetdna.com/

https://www.zoologix.com/

Your state vet lab might offer testing, but most will do a necropsy on any you lose to tell you what was wrong with them. You might call them and ask about testing after Christmas. This link is a list of state vets and how to refrigerate the body before taking it in or shipping it overnight:
https://www.metzerfarms.com/poultry...NITCDYLRWcxvAcqdLoAsG-qSRAQx8YwARmgvYSMVAn8yc