Fungal Infections in Poultry...Often Mistaken for CRD/Mycoplasmosis

[speckledhen]

Just be sure everyone knows that you DO NOT want to add the activator for misting the actual birds! That is for intense disinfecting only.

Previously, it was thought that fungal infections were untreatable and the birds either recovered or died. As long as you can diagnose what you're dealing with early enough and treat it this way, the birds have an excellent chance of recovery.


One thing was quite interesting to us. My Buff Brahma was one of the birds who had the worst problem. She sounded like she would choke to death. Caroline is almost 5 years old. She has always been sneezy, for most of her life. Her head seems very small for her body, so could be that her nasal passages are not the size or proper formation. We brought her in to mist her and she did seem to recover, then a couple of days later, her eyes got weird and foamy. Panicked, we brought her back inside, checked everyone else, saw no one else with that symptom, and called the state vet. He said what happened is that she developed a type of sinusitis related to the fungal infection and it was not Mycoplasmosis or other carrier type thing, to treat her with Tylan in the breast muscle ASAP, which we did for two days, 3/4 cc each day. She recovered beautifully. In fact, no weird eyes after the first day. The interesting thing is that she isn't sneezing nearly as much as she was before the fungal infection! I believe she would have benefited from Oxine way before she was really sick. It probably cleaned out whatever irritation was up in her nasal passages. Amazing product, it is.

 

[missypebble]

Thanks for posting this! A very informative post at the right time of the year too!

I guess my current problem at this point is to figure out of my hens are having CRD or this fungal issue that you're talking about. As the hot weather has been lingering on for so long, I have all of my hens indoor, temperature always set around 81F. I clean out their coops every afternoon/ night. I let them roam in the yard for a few hours after I got home from work, in the afternoon. Their bedding currently is hay. All of my hens breath with an opened mouth, one of them actually has wet mouth while she breathes. The other one breathes heavily and sometimes I could hear it, almost like someone with a stuffy nose and tries to breath. Because I have all of my hens inside, I don't spray the coop with water so I don't think this is a fungal issue, but, after reading a lot of posts on here, I want to reconsider that my hens are dealing with atmospheric (?) fungal issue - like something in the air that cause them to always breath with their opened mouth, even when they're not outside.

What other further observation do I need to make in order to find out what they're going through? From the beginning, I thought they had gapeworm and treated them, but the issue still exists.

Thanks for any feedback you can provide!

 

[speckledhen]

I'm not sure if that is your issue. Hard to say. If they sound like percolators, with no discharges, could very well be.

 

[SarahGrace]

Wow. This was so extremely helpful. Thank you and I have my fingers crossed that it works on my girls!

 

[ChristineR]

Does anyone know if Oxine works to treat non-respiratory forms of fungal infections? i.e. Aspergillosis in the chronic form rather than acute

I have a parrotlet that I believe has Aspergillosis or some form of fungal infection. I went through this with my Sun Conure a few years ago. The vet treated for everything under the sun (including Aspergillosis) and eventually decided that she either had a brain tumor or PDD. Looking back I wish we'd kept up with the terbinafine treatment longer because I don't think we gave it enough time. Now, my parrotlet is presenting the same neurological symptoms, which makes me believe that it actually wasn't a brain tumor or PDD with my conure. It's been a few years since we had to put the conure to sleep and there shouldn't be any bacteria or viruses left from her. I'm wondering if there is something in my house that is causing fungal infections. I live in a wet climate.

 

[PoultryPedia]

Yes, Oxine treats fungal infections in the digestive tract.

Oxine will kill fungi that it directly comes into contact with. Therefore, it should kill any it encounters as it passes through the digestive tract, but I don't think it travels through the bloodstream. I think with Aspergillosis that the fungi should be within range of direct contact with Oxine.

 

[ChristineR]

I know I read this somewhere and now I can't find it. At what dilution do you use Oxine in the drinking water? I'm not planning on doing this on a long term basis, but as a treatment (hopefully).

I got my gallon in the mail today, but the bottle got wet in shipping and smeared the instructions on the side.

 

[ChristineR]

Nevermind--I found what I was looking for. It was another article called The Many Uses of Oxine AH.

http://www.shagbarkbantams.com/oxine.htm

 

[PoultryPedia]

There is also information on using Oxine AH on the "Fungal Infections" page on the PoultryPedia.com website linked in my sig below, along with a couple links to some shagbarkbantams articles, if that's helpful.

Best wishes

 

[PoultryPedia]

If you have a bird showing respiratory problems and growing thin even though it sometimes is eating well & has a good appetite, your bird may be suffering from a respiratory fungal infection.

But another possibility to look out for in such cases is Avian Tuberculosis. A distinguishing characteristic with that is that also there will often be clumps of white urates/poops stuck on the chicken's feathers near its vent.

I don't know if Oxine would also be effective for this condition?? In some cases, the bacteria may be in locations where Oxine couldn't reach, but maybe in some cases... ??