Consolidated Kansas

[Hawkeye95]

Eeeks!! that sounds horrid!! Well, from now on, I will only be buying eggs, I think! After my own shipped birds coming down sick, I don't want to deal with that again! I still don't know what my birds had, since they never had runny noses or eyes. As it is, I don't want to put them in with my layers-- even now that they seem "fine".

BAD words!!!! That's Coryza, and it's BAD, BAD, BAD. There is no real treatment, and you should completely decontaminate yourself before going near your birds. It can only be managed by culling, burning, etc.

There is very little you can do to protect your flock if you are sharing a premises. Ideally, you would get the vaccinations for Coryza and give all of your birds shots. 3 weeks later, do a round of boosters. This will protect any that haven't been infected. I'm not sure what else to tell you.

The landlord can put his on Duramycin to control the secondary infections, but they will always be carriers, even if symptoms cease. They will continue to infect other birds during their lifetime, even if they never have symptoms again. It's just the way this disease works. THIS is the disease I've heard stories of sooooooo many people bringing home to their birds after swaps, on their shoes, etc. THIS is the one I keep Oxine in my car for, to spray down my shoes if I forget my 'feed store shoes.' Start putting a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in your water, and try desperately to avoid contact with the infected birds.

I'm so sorry! It's a terrible thing.

 

[chicken danz]

Tweety, that is probably just big enough for 4 chickens but no more than that. Since he wants to buy why don't you watch CL for someone selling a storage building or if you can spend more buy one of those prebuilt ones that they will deliver. Also there are people who advertise home built chicken houses or tractors that might be a little bigger. Since you are in Lawrence you could easily find one there or on the KC thread. My fear of the greenhouse is that it would get too hot in there for chickens. One option to that would be to invest in some shade cloth to cover the top with. Personally the green house would be more valuable to me than a chicken house ,, even though I have temporarily kept some chickens in mine that I separated for one reason or another. Sometimes I wish I had the money to just buy what I want rather than build but I am sure proud that I can build. Cedar is toxic but as long as there isn't a rough surface it would probably be ok.

 

[tweetysvoice]

Danz - Yeah, I had a great conversation with Renee last night and she's refered me to someone that builds coops. The original idea on the greenhouse was to replace most of the glass panels with wood just because of the heat issue. But hopefully that's going to be mute once I contact this gentleman to build me my dream coop

 

[chicken danz]

Oh one other option. Tuff Shed builds a building on site. You can get them as cheap and basic as you want. There is a dealer in the KC area. You can find them on the internet. They offer specials and prices that aren't available on line. http://www.tuffshed.com/ They even build a little playhouse size that might be perfect for a chicken coop.

 

[HEChicken]

Just wanted to comment about the cats. From just about everything I've read (and I know own 6 chicken care books..lol!), cats are one of the few animals that are rarely a predator to chickens (maybe no baby chicks, but full grown ones). I've heard that dogs are much more destructive than cats are. Anyone else have a story to add about this?

That has been my experience. I have a 25lb cat (not overweight, just HUGE) who is very predatory. He catches mice often (yeah!) so does have some hunting skills. It is interesting to watch the progression with him. He adores chick days, as the brooder is "cat TV" for him. He will sit motionless and watch those chicks for hours at a time. On one occasion I had a chick out and she got away from me and flew to the floor. The cat pounced on her and had her in an instant. We yelled and he dropped and ran and luckily the chick was okay.

But....move them from the brooder to outdoors, and have them grow a little and feather out, and the hunter becomes the hunted. He skulks around giving them a wide berth and goes out of his way to avoid them. My chooks free-range and the cat is allowed out at will but once chicks are big enough to join the flock, they cease to be a target for him, it seems.

 

[chicken danz]

I hate this new design board. I lost like 3 pages and posted to find there had been several responses. Now I look dumb.
Corza can be treated with Tylan successfully but if that is what it is, Chooks is right. Their whole flock could be carriers. Actually Infectious Corza is more of a tropical disease so it could possibly be something else, but actually not worth the chance.
Rittert, You are a bit confused about medication. Please read up on them. Ivermectin is a wormer, bug killer not an antibiotic. It would not help a sick bird. Antibiotics for chickens are like Baytril, Duramyacin, Tylan etc. If you go treating your sick birds with Ivermectin you might end up killing them. I wouldn't be putting quail in there for sure because game birds are more susceptible to corza than chickens.
If your birds are separated you can kill the corza virus with heat. Like maybe a propane torch to the ground,. Or Lye with water creates heat and can kill all kinds of germs. But as long as that bird is in the same area and if you've been touching it or it's eggs you could be spreading the disease. If I were you I'd be looking for another place to keep my birds just for safe measure. I would certainly advise the owners to cull that bird immediately.
Hawkeye don't worry about eating your eggs. Most poultry diseases don't infect humans or we'd all be sick. Besides, most consumption of eggs are cooked which would kill any mircro-organisms. If you saw all the sickness in battery birds you certainly wouldn't be eating store bought eggs if there was any danger. Your own eggs are a whole lot safer.
The human factor in sick birds is touching them and then spreading that to other birds. I try to make a point of keeping my hands washed between handling groups of birds just to be safe.

 

[rittert3]

I'm going to talk to the owners today about burning that bird.

I'm really starting to rethink keeping birds out there. Danz, I'm trying to learn more on the meds here. The Ivomec is a wormer/ prevenative for parasites, Batril and Terramycin are antibiotics, and vetRx works more or less like vicks or mentholatum, right? ETA: this incfection just showed up yesterday for the first time and just in the one hen, who I found backwards in a nest box. Is there a chance she's the only one that has it?

 

[chicken danz]

She might be dead by now. You never know. And you certainly would want to burn that carcass. You can't be sure of what she has without a vet swab and I doubt if you want to add that expense. I would certainly watch all other birds there for any like signs. There is a remote possibility that she has gotten a splinter or something in that one side of her face and has an abcess. That would explain the smell. And most likely she will die pretty soon without treatment. I burn all the birds and baby chicks that die regardless of the cause. It's just a good preventive measure.
Yes that is right. VetRX works like a decongestant with some healing properties. The camphor in it will help kill some bacteria without giving antibiotics. If birds are infected with a virus, antibiotics won't heal them. The virus will simply run its course. But they can heal the subsequent infections resulting from the virus.
I don't try to sound like a know it all. My early college was majoring in biology and I've always been interested in disease and treatment.
As far as your chicken landlords go if they haven't cared enough not to put their chickens on cedar I wouldn't personally want my birds there. It sounds like they don't care about their birds and just want to reap benefits of eggs from them. I don't know your housing budget but I would think you could find a single family home with a yard of some kind, maybe even a mobile home where you could put a small pen in the yard.

 

[Hawkeye95]

I'm going to talk to the owners today about burning that bird.

I'm really starting to rethink keeping birds out there. Danz, I'm trying to learn more on the meds here. The Ivomec is a wormer/ prevenative for parasites, Batril and Terramycin are antibiotics, and vetRx works more or less like vicks or mentholatum, right? ETA: this incfection just showed up yesterday for the first time and just in the one hen, who I found backwards in a nest box. Is there a chance she's the only one that has it?

I would say it's doubtful that she's the only bird that has the coryza-- simply because if you read about it-- it has to be transmitted from some where. The other birds must either be carriers of it, or the owners were around other farms, places where this disease was and then touched this bird and gave it to her. Which means... think of all the things that they touched with their hands or feet! If they touched that bird, then shut the cage and then handled another bird--- you've got an entire flock possibly infected. If you touched that bird and then touched yours or their cage without washing in between.... The antibiotics like Baytril and Tylan are used for different things, as well. The Tylan is used for the runny/watery nose and eyes. The Baytril is more for an internal infection and is able to cross the barrier of the brain to treat it as well. The Duramycin is great because it can be added to the water and a general antibiotic-- however, it binds to calcium, and you'd want to make sure the feed you are feeding doesn't have calcium, or switch feeds. When I tried the Duramycin , I was really frustrated to see no results at all with it. When I found that info out, I checked my feed and realized that it had a lot of calcium in it. I was told I could increase the dosage to compensate for the loss in potency-- but I don't know if that is a great idea. Who knows how much potency is lost? It would be easier to switch the feed and use the drug with the correct dosage.

 

[Hawkeye95]

She might be dead by now. You never know. And you certainly would want to burn that carcass. You can't be sure of what she has without a vet swab and I doubt if you want to add that expense. I would certainly watch all other birds there for any like signs. There is a remote possibility that she has gotten a splinter or something in that one side of her face and has an abcess. That would explain the smell. And most likely she will die pretty soon without treatment. I burn all the birds and baby chicks that die regardless of the cause. It's just a good preventive measure.
Yes that is right. VetRX works like a decongestant with some healing properties. The camphor in it will help kill some bacteria without giving antibiotics. If birds are infected with a virus, antibiotics won't heal them. The virus will simply run its course. But they can heal the subsequent infections resulting from the virus.
I don't try to sound like a know it all. My early college was majoring in biology and I've always been interested in disease and treatment.
As far as your chicken landlords go if they haven't cared enough not to put their chickens on cedar I wouldn't personally want my birds there. It sounds like they don't care about their birds and just want to reap benefits of eggs from them. I don't know your housing budget but I would think you could find a single family home with a yard of some kind, maybe even a mobile home where you could put a small pen in the yard.

agreed-- I'd be worried about these people and their lack of concern.