Coop Full of Sick Chickens

[bigredfeather]

Over the past few days, about half of my 60 birds have started sneezing and have very wet, weezy breathing. They are all eating and drinking, but it sounds horrible. What would everybody recommend as a good treatment for them.

Thanks.

 

[ranchhand]

You may not be getting responses because it's a pretty overwhelming question. The following link may help you narrow it down some, but be aware that you will have to separate the sick ones asap and treatment will need to be universal. Quite a few people will cull the entire flock when a respiratory disease starts running through all of them. Some respiratory diseases can be survived yet the bird becomes a carrier for life.

http://www.amerpoultryassn.com/respiratory_disease.htm

I strongly urge you to separate the sick far away from the still well immediately, then come back here and search for respiratory disease in the search box top right.

Good luck.

 

[bigredfeather]

Quote:
Thanks for the info. Seperating is not going to be an option. There are just too many, and I don't have anywhere to move them to. Looks like I could be in some real danger of losing my flock.

I checked your link, and it looks like several are possibile and none sound very promising.

I hate to have a vet visit, but it may be my best bet for isolating the sickness and trying to give meds. I have feared this would happen eventually, but now that it's here, I don't know how to handle it.

Thanks.

 

[chookchick]

Your best "shot in the dark" treatment for a respiratory illness for so many chickens is soluble Tylan. Here is a thread with info on dosing with that.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=283196
If you lose a bird, keep it refrigerated, and get a necropsy done on it. You need to figure out what they have, if they are carriers, etc...even if they get well. You may need to keep a closed flock. Good luck!

BTW--has anything changed in their environment? Coop is fairly clean? Have you introduced new chickens?

 

[Elite Silkies]

Quote:
I agree. I would also give them a separate waterer with Vitamins/Electrolytes in it.

 

[bigredfeather]

Quote:
Only thing changed is that it's colder and snowier. Coop is faily clean. First thing I did when I noticed is add a bunch of new bedding. No new birds or people visitors lately.

 

[lotzahenz]

I am so sorry for you as this is a very poor prognosis. From experience, respiratory disease very slowly travels thru your flock. Your birds may or may not survive, but they will not be as thrifty as they could be and you will always have carriers. That is an option but not a very good one. Even isolating birds is no gaurantee, as you are the carrier if you are not super careful and it is impossible to know who is infected and not showing symptoms.

My sympathy, good luck. This may be the hardest thing you have lived thru in your chicken life. You can spend days on here researching, this is the best web sight in the world.

HenZ

 

[bigredfeather]

Quote:
Thank you. :drop head

 

[speckledhen]

Have you checked ammonia levels at their height? Could be nothing more than wet bedding and ammonia buildup if you havent added any new birds lately, a common problem in winter. Get down at their level, stir around the bedding and take a big whiff. Check some by picking it up and feeling it in your hand. Do you have ventilation? Even in winter, they need air flow up high.

 

[biddyboo]

I was concerned about ammonia buildup in our hens' indoor pen in the barn, perhaps causing some respiratory problems. Big ol' barn, ought to have lots of ventilation, but a winter's worth of poopy bedding can have lots of ammonia, I'd think. On one of our decent days last week, we pulled everything out of their pen (waterers, nest box, roosts) so it was open for working. I dug down to the floor through the litter, turned it all over. Some places were very dry/dusty/grey and others were wettish. Anything wet, I tossed out to begin an outdoor compost pile of all this bedding. That amounted to probably a fourth of the deep litter. I stirred all that was left, and added about a half bale of dry pine shavings over the top, threw in a couple handsful of StallDri, tossed on some scratch to encourage the hens to mix it all up themselves. I didn't get a strong ammonia burn/smell, but I had been noticing some "odor" when I'd come in the closed barn in the morning, so it was probably developing. I hope this midwinter stir helps avoid some problems such as discussed here. Just a description of what I did... ~G