Finally got my five hens today and...

[speckledhen]

In my opinion, coughing is much worse than sneezing. Sneezing is often environmental. I have never in my life heard a chicken cough. If I did, I would probably euthanize it. If you get antibiotics, you are treating it blindly and it may be viral and not treatable with antibiotics. The hardest thing for a new chicken owner to understand is that even if the bird seems to recover, most of these viral diseases are herpes types, which means they will now carry the disease for life and can always infect others. If these are your first chickens, you treat them and you ever add more to the flock, the new ones will probably contract what the original ones have. This is such a hard fact of life to learn and I hate that you are having to deal with illness already.
Yes, stress can bring out symptoms of a disease the birds already carry. A healthy bird will not begin coughing just because it's moved to a new location IMO. Sneezing can be from too much ammonia or dust or chemicals, like paint, gasoline, etc.
Tylan can be found at almost every feedstore, if you choose to treat. Personally, I would leave them alone and see if their immune systems fight it off. If not, then they are going to always be sick, on and off, even if they seem to get over this. I know some may disagree with me, but I'm used to that.

 

[cmom]

I agree with speckledhen. I would wait and see how they adjust to their new conditions and surroundings. Chickens are creatures of habits. When you make changes it takes some time for them to re-adjust. The birds may be re-establishing their pecking order as it was changed. Like you said they were raised with more and probably had some what of an existing pecking order then a massive change. A new environment and fewer birds.

 

[morelcabin]

Put a little mollasses and cinnamon in thier drinking water. The molasses will help with any stresses and the cinnamon is great for respatory problems

 

[Tweeza]

What about giving vitamins and electrolytes for the stress? Keep them hydrated and a little extra to boost the immune system?

 

[mrsgibber]

Well I'm very stressed out myself right now. I don't think they are coughing, I believe they are sneezing but two of them spewed BLOOD when they sneezed. I called the farm where I got them yesterday and took three of the five back to them. Two of the hens are quite happy and behaving quite well so I kept them.

I got to the farm and found three others that looked healthy and i know I probably shouldn't have done this because come to find out the farmer has lost a few hens to whatever this but didn't think it had infected the pullets since they are kept completely separate and hadn't so much as gone outside yet with the other hens & roosters. She started treated her hens with an antibiotic and said she hasn't lost any since but she still doesn't know what this is.

Well I took the new three home and she gave me a 7 day supply of treatment to add to their water as well to prevent or stop these ones from getting sick. Only one of the new birds is sneezing now but they are all active and seem fine otherwise as where the other three I took back seemed more listless.

What should I do? Should I just take them all back and try to gets some new chicks to raise (which I really don't feel ready to deal with yet) or should I try to stick it out with these five and see if they stay healthy?

My husband and I put so much money and even more labor into getting these chickens here, it is so upsetting to be starting out this way.

 

[speckledhen]

Look up ILT which is Larygotracheitis, a serious illness. The blood is from a tracheal hemmorrage. Those will be carriers for life if this is what I suspect. Sadly, I would cull all of them then disinfect everything and dont get more birds just yet. Antibiotics will not keep them from being carriers or kill the disease.
http://www.avianweb.com/laryngotracheitis.html
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/diseaseinfo/83/infectious-laryngotracheitis-ilt

 

[pips&peeps]

I would take these birds back to the seller and get a refund.

These birds are obviously sick and in most States it is illegal to sell livestock that has been exposed to infectious disease.

I agree this sounds like ILT. The birds will suffocate and die from their tracheas swelling.

Take the birds back, disinfect your coops and wait another 90 days before getting any more birds. I would also vaccinate all future birds with the LT-Ivax vaccine.

 

[Indychick]

Quote:
This is sad news - and not a very good start.

 

[mrsgibber]

Ok, I am really sad about this. The two original birds that I kept are still doing VERY well. Eating like crazy, enjoying the run, foraging, etc. They are very sweet. The three new ones I brought home...two again are doing very well, active, moving about the run, etc. The last one is sneezing.

If I watch them for a few more days would you think it's safe to keep them or should I still bring them all back and wait.

If I do that and then order baby chicks, when would I be able to put them in the coop?

Thanks for all of your help. I am so totally sick over this.

 

[Indychick]

Quote:
I would follow speckledhen's advice.

The birds might all be at different stages of the disease.....thus showing different (or no) symptoms. Take them all back - and DON'T EVER GET BIRDS FROM THIS SOURCE AGAIN.