EMERGANCY! Illness & dead birds I need help fast!~UPDATE on page 3~

[Mourningdove]

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Thank you so very much for this info! I am thinking I may need to go this route.

 

[threehorses]

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Oh my bad. Fowl Cholera.

 

[Mourningdove]

I have a thought. Sulmet (sulfamethazine sodium 12.5%, aka Albon) treats both E. coli, cocciodisis, and fowl cholera. It isn't effective against M. gallisepticum, however. But you could try treating them with that and try to cover a broad series of illnesses. It's water based which would make it easier to treat your whole flock. TSC carries it. And it's inexpensive.

Threehorses I have purchased and started the sulmet on these birds, thanks for the advice!

 

[threehorses]

You're very welcome. Please let me know how it goes as the followup feedback is very important to me to keep checks and balances on the advice I give.

I do dearly hope they really thrive for you now. Don't forget those probiotics daily and then every other day thereafter for two weeks since Sulmet kills good and bad bacteria as it treats your birds. That way they won't lose too much good bacteria.

How long will you be treating by the way? I'd recommend no less than 5 days, I like 7.

 

[Mourningdove]

I was thinking more like 6-7 days. What probiotics do you recommend?

 

[threehorses]

My personal favorites, if I get to choose, are in this order:

Probios dispersible powder ($9 at our feedstore for 240gm bottle which is plenty). It lasts ages in the fridge, 1/4 teaspoon per bird dosage, the powder can mix with water or little bitty snacks that they'll devour. You can use while medicating with -mycins and -cyclines.

Acidophilus capsules or tablets. One capsule's contents or crushed tablet per bird per day, one per six 1-day old chicks. Again because it's such a small amount, very easy to mix into something quickly eaten. Can be used while medicating with cyclines and mycins.

Plain white yogurt. The benefit is the birds if they love it REALLY love it. The drawback is that it's a teaspoon to tablespoon per adult bird per day. If they don't love it, it's a little harder to mix. But you can get it in the middle of the night. It makes an awesome treat to bribe and tame your birds if they like it. Most will learn to like it - just are offended a little by its stickiness at first. Good for mass-dosing. Another benefit is that it is fortified with vitamin D which helps calcium absorbtion. It also contains some fats and is a food so that it is bioavailable. Another drawback is that it's not able to be used while you medicate with -cyclines or -mycins because the high-dairy content and amount of a serving cause the antibiotics to be ineffective.

You can also buy other live-bacteria probiotic products at the feedstore - like Fastrack (which I believe also ahs a yeast culture for more vitamin B). The key is to look for labeling that includes a number and the letters CFU that denotes that there are colony forming units. THe label can say "byproducts of..." or "Fermentation products", but still must have a CFU level listed to show that there are live bacteria, not just their by products.

All of the above are good products - I just feel that in the long run, Probios is the strongest and ends up to be most economical even over plain yogurt. But sometimes 68 cents fits the budget better than $9.

Incidentally, except in cases of diarrhea, you can use babyfood applesauce in small amounts (no more than 1/2 teaspoon per bird) once a week or so to help clean out their digestive tracts and the pectin 'feeds' the bacteria you're trying to get to colonize. I feed it more often to birds with static crops as it helps clean the digestive tract while feeding bacteria. I learned that trick when I had chronic mechanical statis of the crop in one of my pet parrots. It worked wonders to keep her digestive tract flowing.

 

[Mourningdove]

threehorses, you had asked me if any of these birds in question had puffy faces, I just came back in from feeding and looked at the birds again, while none of them appear to have puffy faces most of them do appear to be having problems with their eyes, almost a puffy and sickly looking....but only around the eyes.....

 

[threehorses]

Are the eyes clean and foamy, or puffy and look like someone had allergies?

Here's a good site with some pretty nasty pictures that show really good head shots of some of the illnesses:

http://tinyurl.com/nogt8t

I still am wondering about fowl cholera. The foamy eyes, bubbles, that can be MG. But apparently there's a similar but not as devastating disease called M. Synoviae (versus M. gallisepticum = MG).

Definitely a respiratory illness of some sort.

By the way, odd as it sounds, smell them. If they smell really bad it could be coryza. (Also treatable by Sulmet I think.... brain is tired at the moment).

I'm going to take a re-look at the treatment regimines recommended on this site and see how they look - they look interesting at a glance.

 

[mekasmom]

If the eyes are closed, it is Mycoplasma Gallesepticum. That is the most common poultry disease. And it would be my first guess because it also causes wheezing, coughing, diarrhea and death.

 

[Mourningdove]

thank you, thank you, thank you threehorses!!! I just saved this page. Yes your probly right, respritory seems to be more likely!
I am sticking with the sulmet! Do you think if I put gatorade in the water along with meds it will be ok? I am trying to find a cost effective way to treat! DH asked how this could be happening, my answer is....
possibly from too much rain and moister and also from carrying more birds.....