Distinguising Between Different Respiratory Diseases

[GuppyTJ]

Everyone,

Does anyone have hands on experience distinguishing between the different respiratory diseases? I've read about everything there is to try to determine which disease(s) my chicks have and I just wondered if anyone has actual experience that they can share that helped them determine what respiratory disease they were dealing with. Here are the details of my situation. (Part of documenting it here for you is so I have this for my records as well.)

What I Already Read/Did To Determine Diagnosis

1. Studied The Chicken Health Handbook in detail.
2. Reviewed as many online resources as I could find like http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044 and http://msucares.com/poultry/diseases/disviral.htm#ib and http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/2902/2902-1094/2902-1094_pdf.pdf
3. Talked to my local resources on chicken health. In my case, it's the University of Kentucky Ag/Poultry place. This is where I'd bring a chick if I wanted a necropsy done and I talked to a doctor there who also keeps chickens herself.
4. From all these resources, I think I’ve narrowed it down to one or more of the following 4 diseases: Mycoplasma gallisepticum (air sac disease), Infectious bronchitis, Laryngotracheitis, Mycoplasma synoviae (infectious synoviae). But based on the symptoms (described below), their age and the disease progression rate (a few weeks), % affected (100%) and mortality rate, I can’t seem to figure out which it is.
5. I know an option to determine what they have is to have the University of Kentucky do a necropsy. I also already have them on antibiotics so this is about the best I can do as we have no avian vets in the area.

My Chickens and Their Symptom Progression

1. I’m new to chickens, I got 12 approximately 1 week old chicks from a farmer's market, from 3 different farmers. They are a bunch of breeds: Buff Oprington, Black Australorp, Rhode Island Red, Barred Rock. I realize (now, gotta love that 20/20 hindsight) that getting them from an animal swap from 3 different farms likely is what opened me up to this problem in the first place.
2. My (now) 10 chicks are now 5 weeks old, raised in the house under a brooder light on straw, eating non-medicated feed. I change the bedding daily, their water is raised (so no wet bedding). I’ve kept them warm, following the 90/85/80… decrease per week type temperature as they grew.
3. One chick named MeMe died at 3 weeks old. He just never grew at all. The only symptom besides never growing was that he peeped constantly from age 1.5 weeks to 3 weeks old. I think he was just not born fully developed. I gave all the chicks probiotics to try to make sure his and their intestinal health was good but it didn’t help. He just never grew.
4. Another chick, AppleDuck, was the first to show respiratory symptoms at about 3 weeks old. The symptoms were having a rattle when breathing, slept a lot, gaping (opening mouth wide while extending neck, then closing mouth as she drew in her neck). When she breaths, she often has her mouth slightly parted on inhale. She also had some nasel crusting on one side of her nose, which I cleaned off and she hasn’t had any nasal issues/discharge since that I can see. These are her only symptoms. No sneezing, no head shaking. As of right now, at 5 weeks, this is still her situation, maybe the symptoms are a little less but she still has all the same symptoms.
5. Then, at 3.5 weeks old, Possum started became listless. Maybe 5 or 6 times, he shoke his head violently as if to clear something from his throat and clear mucus would fly out. He would extend his neck to breath but did not gape. He also stood around off by himself. I put all the chicks on Duramycin-10 antibiotics (tetracycline) on the advice of University of Kentucky the day after he got sick. He was only sick for 2 days and then died.
6. Next, Dark Knight started to get sick at about 4 weeks old. His symptoms were different than AppleDuck and Possums. Dark Knight would regularly have little tiny head shaking, not infrequent violent head shaking like Possum. Dark Knight also peeps, 4 or 5 little peeps in succession but not constantly. Dark Knight also lies down and Dark Knight does not gape when breathing and does not open and close his mouth to breath. He seems worse at night than in the day. He eats well, drinks well and has the whole time. He’s the smallest chick, yet seems to have recovered enough to fly up to roost with the other chicks. As of right now, he no longer shakes his head but is still peeping on some frequency.
7. At about 4.5 weeks old or so, all the chicks without exception show some type of respiratory stress. For the first time I see a new symptom, sneezing. A few also breathe with their mouths open, which is also a new symptom. Some shake their heads quickly (like Dark Night, not like Possum) and some gape. One had a tiny bit of nasal discharge on one nostral (or it was a water droplet?) Other than this, so far, they seem generally healthy, flying around the brooder, alert, curious, eating well, drinking well, sparring.
8. Symptoms I have not seen ever are discharge from the eyes, any foul smells (indicative of Coryza) or coughing. I also don’t see swelling of the nose or face or eyes but I’m not sure I’d know what that looked like. Also, no head twisting and no convulsions.
9. Clearly, I made a big mistake not quarantining Meme, AppleDuck and Possum when they first started showing symptoms. At this point, I have to just learn from my mistakes and not make them again.
10. As mentioned above, all the chicks are on antibiotics so this is maybe masking some symptoms (which is very good) but making it harder to figure out what disease(s) they have. I don't plan on culling the whole lot of them. I plan to let this batch of chicks live out their lives with me, then I'll do the all out/all in method of replacing this group with new chicks several years down the road. I may be dealing with health issues for the remainder of their lives, I realize. But I'm sure I'll continue to learn a lot in the process and I'll do better with the next group in the future as a result.

I know this is a ton of information but as I mentioned, part of documenting it here for you is so I have this for my records as well. If anyone can offer any insights on which disease(s) I’m dealing with, I’d appreciate it. The books and resources all say it’s very hard to figure out without lab work or a necropsy but I thought I’d see if anyone might be able to tell me what they’ve experienced.

Much thanks in advance,
Guppy

 

[realsis]

unless there are obvious clues such as foul smell swollen head ect. it is impossible to tell exactly which illness you are dealing with. without obvious clues to certain disease you really MUST have lab work to confirm the Exact nature of the illness. guesses can be made but you will never really know the exact nature of this illness without laboratory testing. unfortunately. as for treating respiratory illness many people including myself have had EXCELLENT results using an antibiotic called Tylosin. brand name tylan50. chick dose is .10 that's one tenth of a cc you can give it to chicks orally or in the back of neck. once daily for 5 days.bantam dose is 1/4 cc given in the breast once daily for 5 days.large bird dose is 1/2 cc given in the breast once daily for 5 days
Tylosin is very successful in treating the symptoms of respiratory illness
you might consider trying the Tylan50. it is very successful in treating upper or lower respiratory illness. I'm sorry I can't identify the exact nature of the illness. maybe get a lab to identify it for you with blood work. then there will be no question and you will know EXACTLY what your dealing with. I hope this helps some and wish you the best. I do hope your chicks get better soon. perhaps try the Tylan50 at dose for chicks and given orally and see if it elevates the symptoms. good luck to you.

 

[GuppyTJ]

unless there are obvious clues such as foul smell swollen head ect. it is impossible to tell exactly which illness you are dealing with...

Thanks for the response, Realsis. This helps me realize that it's just not me not able to diagnose what is ailing my chicks. Thanks for the tip on the Tylan50. I'll finish up with the Duramycin-10 antibiotics (tetracycline) and then see how they are doing. As of this morning, they are all just a tiny bit better this morning, which is to say, not too bad off. Appleduck still rattles so no change there but that's been going on for about 2 weeks. Dark Knight peeping about the same as yesterday but still no head shaking. The rest are still doing some minor sneezing, head shaking and gaping, but I dare say a little less than yesterday.

I'm hoping to move them to the outside coop on Tuesday, 2 days from now. They'll be 6 weeks old and pretty much fully feathered. Here's a pic of them roosting on their brooder sides, making the most of their space.


I'll see how they are and weigh the pros and cons of moving them. I know it's stressful to move them yet, they're getting too big for their brooder, knocking over the water, crowded and bumping into each other, sparring without the space to do it which scares the others who have few places to hide. Unless they take a turn for the worst, I think I should probably move them and hope I made the right decision.

Thanks again,
Guppy