Did I just make a terrible error?

[jeza921]

I went to an Amish auction house Friday night and purchased 10 baby chick Araucana’s and 3 Barred Rock pullets. The pullets are probably eight weeks old. I looked them over at the auction and they seemed to be in good condition, except they were of strikingly varying sizes. When I got them home I set them up in a stall in the barn away from the flock (the pullets; the chicks went into our basement). I noticed some odd poop from them; not bloody, but tiny pink or orange dots in diarrhea. Like pieces of tissue. Anyway, I watched them over the weekend, letting them out in the grass to walk around. The smallest one kept laying down and sleeping every two seconds. This one also was missing her tail; like her take had been cut off. Completely gone. Besides that, she and her sisters were well feathered. I picked her up and went over her very carefully, looking for anything odd. She fell asleep in my hand. She also sneezed twice. Then I found a large, fluid filled lump on her chest. Like, the size of half her breast. We decided it would be best for her and the flock to put her down. I found out later after some research she had a ‘breast blister’. Now I’m still watching the other two in the stall. Their poop sometimes has the pink stuff in it, but usually does not. It goes from normal (but small) to dark colored diarrhea. There has been no sneezing from them, although I did pick a crusty piece of mucus off one of their noses. They are on medicated feed and a sprayed them with a natural mite treatment because I saw some red mites (not a whole lot.) I’m worried about my flock. They’re separated, but if it’s airborn they’re in trouble because the stall is only separated from them by a wall. My flock is also on medicated feed and vaccinated for Mareks. I’m also concerned about the chicks in the basement; what if everyone recovers but they remain carriers of whatever it is and I put the chicks out and their tiny immune systems can’t handle it? I can’t believe I did something so stupid as to bring home birds from an auction! Augh!

Any advice or insight into this mess is highly appreciated.

 

[Judy]

I'm not going to be much help here, but I do think if you haven't seen the "poo site," you might do well to look it over. It sounds like you may be seeing some cecal poo, which is normal, or that may be one thing going on here. I'm also going to post a link to a good introductory site on respiratory diseases.

http://www.chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php?topic=17568.0

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=9241

 

[jeza921]

Thank you, I have seen the poo post, which is very helpful. It looks almost identical to the 'shedding of intestinal lining' picture. Odd, since if that's the case, they're shedding quite a bit of lining, and my flock hasn't had anything like that at all. But definitely reassuring that it's not blood.

 

[Attack Chicken]

When my adults were young they had the same shedding of intestinal lining poo I think your talking about. I was worried that something was wrong with them but they soon stopped it. My young ones are now starting that kinda poo. No blood at all.

 

[JennsPeeps]

Do a serach in emergencies for the threads by: PurpleChicken, GumpsGirl, and SouthernBelle about biosecurity. It's important not to treat quarantined animals during their quarantine. If they're sick, you want the symptoms to show up. Treatment for mites, worms, & cocci is ok, but no antibiotics or other medicines that may potentially mask symptoms.

When you think that the new birds are healthy after a month, you'll need to pick a bird from your current flock as a sort of sacrificial lamb. Put that bird in with the others (or nearby, in case pecking is an issue) and see how it fares. If it gets sick, cull all of the birds. If not, it's probably OK to move them all in together.

Read up on biosecurity about cross-contamination.

 

[jeza921]

I suppose there's another question I could add to this, and that is, does anyone know if Citric Acid is a good tool for mites? They're not badly infected, but I'm curious for future reference.

 

[Judy]

Quote:
Never heard of using it for this. DE as a preventative, poultry dust or Adma's flea and tick (permiethrin/pyrethrin) are the usual approaches. Ivermectin also works, as does Sevin 5% dust.

 

[jeza921]

I have an update... I went and sat with the two pullets for a long time, and one of them is coughing. It's a wet, honking noise. If they both get over whatever this is, should I consider not integrating them with the flock? I'd really hate to cull them if they could make it, but I also don't want to risk my other birds dying.

 

[zowieyellowflame]

Not sure if your coughing is my birds sneezes but when I first got them they were sneezing. A few weeks of good food, sunshine and a yard to run about in and the sneezing is gone.
Maybe u could try contacting the person who sold them to the auction, maybe they could shed light on the birds' history?

 

[JennsPeeps]

Coughing is a sign of a more serious respiratory. Remember that birds do not get "colds". I encourage you to check out the emergencies forum (do a search on cough) and see what comes up. There are lots of resources, sad stories, and input on what to do.