excessive beak scraping and respiratory issues

[okiemamachick]

Hello I've made a couple post about respiratory issues in my flock the past couple of days. I'm a chicken watcher I know my birds behavior and I know the clean their beaks by scraping. Well I've been sitting with them today and they are ALL excessively wiping their beaks and not just on hard surfaces but in dry dirt, their oyster shell and everywhere else. Is this another symptom? I'm getting tylan 50 tomorrow and I guess I'm going to dose them all because it was just one hen sneezing and now it's my rooster too although he sneezes a lot less. I HATE THIS I just switched to a different feed today that's less dusty and I believe has better nutrition than the purina and tsc brand. Hopefully this will give them a boost as well.

 

[Eggcessive]

Is sneezing and raspy breathing the only symptoms? You could be dealing with a virus such as infectious bronchitis. IB or other viruses will not respond to antibiotics, but will have to run their course over several weeks. Antibiotics such as oxytetracycline and Tylan can help symptoms of bacterial infections, and can also help to prevent secondary infections of viruses. It's hard to tell one disease from another, but you can get one tested to find out which one is making them sick. You seem very conscientious about taking care of your chickens. I hope they get better soon. IB will only make your chickens carriers for up to a year, rather than for life, like some of the others such as MG.

 

[okiemamachick]

No other symptoms yet no open mouth breathing no crusty or swollen eyes. No lethargy. I have started giving them garlic as of yesterday trying to bolster their immune system. Is there any way to tell when they've developed a secondary infection?

 

[okiemamachick]

And their breathing isn't raspy yo the point that you can hear it easily I had to hold the hen up to my ear to hear anything and that was still faint sounds kinda like when my babies were croupie or similar