It sounds like Infectious Coryzoa (sp?) Once you have it, they are right....you have to either cull them out to keep the healthy birds from getting it...or run the risk of your whole flock being carriers...which means you cannot sell the birds to anyone else or breeders. It is that contagious. Tylan is suppose to work really well on this, but also Sulpha drugs are labeled to work too. I would read up on it more, get a good idea on what drugs work the best and this type of virus is sensitive to. There is suppose to be a booster for chicks, to keep them from getting this. I would suggest boostering next years chicks, and culling out this flock... replace with healthy birds then, so you dont have to deal with this over and over again. Make sure you sanitize/disinfect everything before bringing in new healthy birds to that area too! Even if you clear this bird up...you are running the risk of the rest of the flock getting it...and this is also something that will show symptoms off and on, depending on when the birds are stressed from anything. So not only are you treating this bird now...you could end up treating her again and again through winter, and also the rest of your birds. They could all be carriers already, and the symptoms have just not presented yet. If you have other types of birds... please be aware that turkey, peafowl, and pheasant can get this also!!! I read up on this, because i suspected i had a problem here with my turkey and peafowl... they had just a swollen sinus, i was lucky. Sometimes dust will cause sinus problems in other types of fowl... i am sure it does also with poultry, but i would do some research and call a vet and ask about testing to confirm, so you can take the next necessary steps. My Vet offered to do cultures and send to a lab...but they can also PTS any sick birds and do necropsies also. Just depends on how you want to handle things there...if these are your pets they can live with this type of virus and you can treat the symptoms as they come along...or if you are a breeder, you may want to do what you can to get to the bottom of it, and cull out start over. Sometimes we need to make hard decisions, it is never easy. BE AWARE...do not eat any eggs while they are on antibiotics, you need to wait several weeks till even they are done with it. The bug you found is probably mites, it is a good time of year to dust everyone, you will see alot of bugs on the birds right now. I am seeing some on my birds, probably because it is getting colder. Get some Poultry Dust from
TSC... works good. I also have heard DE works good also, but i cant find it at
TSC or near here.
