OMG, that is sooooo sad. I always had healthy hens too, until I brought it a dumped Rooster...I lost my favorite to "mites" or ???? never knew for sure. I managed to get the other girl healthy with hand feeding of yogurt and feed mixed and kept her in the house for a week. I feel for you. I wish I had never brought him to my house. I should have taken him directly to the Animal Shelter so they could deal with him. I won't do another rescue like that, the way I did it. My hens are all well again, how are yours?Hi all--
I posted here about a week ago and got one response (not pointing fingers, just disheartened).
On Tuesday, June 25th, I picked up five chickens someone had dumped on public property downtown in my city. Because I have not owned chickens for long (a little less than a year), I didn't give a second thought to just throwing them all in with my chickens. I noticed one of them--a banty rooster--was sneezing, but I didn't think much of it, because I only heard him do it once or twice.
On Thursday, June 27th, I gave all but one of the chickens away--two to one friend and two to another. I kept an Australorp pullet for myself.
On Saturday, June 29th, I noticed my chickens all seemed a little lethargic, but I blamed it on the heat.
On Sunday, June 30th, I woke up to discover every single one of my chickens (9 total) standing/lying around the yard. All of them had gurgly breath, coughing, sneezing, wheezing, and some of them had crusty eyes.
For the past week, I have done everything in my power to help my chickens recover. I started out using Tylan 50, injected intramuscularly. 1/2 cc once a day. Three days ago, I switched to Tylan 200. I am also hand-feeding the ones who are extremely ill (yogurt, egg yolk, and electrolytes mixed together), giving Grapefruit Seed Extract and ACV, giving subcutaneous fluids to the very ill ones, and fogging them several times a day with Oxine AH in a cool mist humidifier. The sickest chickens are inside in my (large) bathroom so that I can keep an eye on them and keep them out of the heat.
In the past week, I have lost two of my chickens. The first, a Dominique, died on July 4th. She actually seemed like she was doing well, and I had put her back outside. I found her in the morning, sitting on the back porch gasping for air and making a horrific sound. I brought her inside and she choked and died shortly thereafter.
The second chicken I lost this morning, and I've not been able to stop crying. She was my favorite--a gorgeous, huge Ancona named Maude. Everyone loved Maude, and she was so strong and beautiful, people thought she was a rooster. She laid huge white eggs almost every day. Just typing that she is dead is breaking my heart. She died in my arms. Last night, I noticed that she was breathing shallowly with her mouth open (a lot of the sick chickens are doing open-mouthed breathing), but unlike the other hens, she was very nonresponsive and just seemed like an animal on the way out. This morning, I found her lying on her side. I wrapped her up and tried giving her some more fluids and vitamins, but she died in my arms in a really horrible fit of choking and gasping. It was awful.
I'm at my wit's end. I've done absolutely everything I can think to do, both natural and conventional. I'm so sad and depressed I haven't slept or eaten in days.
I put both the dead Dominique and Maude in the freezer and have contacted the state veterinarian. Tomorrow, I will be shipping them to the University of Kentucky for a necropsy.
At first, I thought they had Infectious Bronchitis, but this seems much, MUCH worse than that. Then I thought Coryza, of which they have many symptoms, but the mucus doesn't smell foul, like it's supposed to. Now I'm thinking it's possibly MG, but since they got sick so suddenly and violently, I'm left wondering.
I KNOW this is a long post. I'm trying to give as much info as possible. I know I'll know something once I get the results of the necropsy, but in the meantime, is there ANYTHING else I can do?? Some of the chickens have gotten quite a bit better, but some are getting worse. Some seem to get better, only to relapse and get much worse a day later. Is there anything I can do to help with the mucus?? I think the two who have died simply '"drowned" in the mucus that accumulated in their lungs. I've been swabbing out the throat of my sickest chicken, and great blogs of mucus are always clinging to the swab.
I know death is a reality for anyone who owns farm-type animals, but these chickens are my pets. I'm devastated. I want to know that there's hope.
ETA: The two people who took in the other chickens also have sick flocks, as well, but they don't seem as hard hit. Their birds are starting to recover, with less intervention than mine have received. But their flocks, too, were sick within two days of the outside birds entering the flocks.
Not every herb is safe in large doses, but Elecampane is quite harmless. The recommended human dosage for acute illness is very high. Again, please keep us posted!!
