- Mar 28, 2012
- 11
- 0
- 22
I'm at a loss, here.
I have two flocks at the moment- the "big ones" (11) are outside in the coop, and the "little ones" (4) are in my home office
I started noticing sneezing in the big chickens about 2 weeks ago. I started acquiring them in March, and have had all of them together for 2 months. They are between 3 months and a yearish. The coop was cleaned and disinfected before they got put in there, though it had a loose dirt floor (just a tiny bit denser than DE), and I had clean hay in the nesting boxes. When I noticed the sneezing in a couple chickens, I thought it might be dust related, so changed the nesting material to shredded paper and put pine shavings down. Since then, more chickens have started sneezing and now they have nasal discharge as well. When they were little and in the brooder, they were on pine with no problems. I raised all but two of them from day-olds, and those two came together, weren't sick then and aren't sneezing now.
The little ones are about 8 weeks, and came home with me on Friday. They went straight into my office in a clean bin with clean pine shavings, and I've been very diligent about washing up between flocks. And yet, last night- they're sneezing too.
The ONLY thing these flocks have in common is that they are all eating Purina Flock Raiser. It seemed fresh enough to me, not very dusty at all. The small ones don't have discharge, but it took a while to show up in the big chickens too. I'm working on figuring out how to get the big guys tested for respiratory infections- I'm hesitant to use antibiotics unless it's warranted.
Any thoughts? I just bought a new bag of Flock Raiser, but haven't opened it, and we're headed back to TSC to get horse feed tonight- I can exchange it for something pelleted. That's about as far as I've gotten in terms of a plan... help!
I have two flocks at the moment- the "big ones" (11) are outside in the coop, and the "little ones" (4) are in my home office
I started noticing sneezing in the big chickens about 2 weeks ago. I started acquiring them in March, and have had all of them together for 2 months. They are between 3 months and a yearish. The coop was cleaned and disinfected before they got put in there, though it had a loose dirt floor (just a tiny bit denser than DE), and I had clean hay in the nesting boxes. When I noticed the sneezing in a couple chickens, I thought it might be dust related, so changed the nesting material to shredded paper and put pine shavings down. Since then, more chickens have started sneezing and now they have nasal discharge as well. When they were little and in the brooder, they were on pine with no problems. I raised all but two of them from day-olds, and those two came together, weren't sick then and aren't sneezing now.The little ones are about 8 weeks, and came home with me on Friday. They went straight into my office in a clean bin with clean pine shavings, and I've been very diligent about washing up between flocks. And yet, last night- they're sneezing too.
The ONLY thing these flocks have in common is that they are all eating Purina Flock Raiser. It seemed fresh enough to me, not very dusty at all. The small ones don't have discharge, but it took a while to show up in the big chickens too. I'm working on figuring out how to get the big guys tested for respiratory infections- I'm hesitant to use antibiotics unless it's warranted.
Any thoughts? I just bought a new bag of Flock Raiser, but haven't opened it, and we're headed back to TSC to get horse feed tonight- I can exchange it for something pelleted. That's about as far as I've gotten in terms of a plan... help!
