I'm new to the chicken world. Built a 4 x 14 coop with a 10 x 10 run attached to it, have 15 hens and 2 Roos. My girls are as follows: 3 black sexlinks, 2 red sexlinks, 4 americaunas, 1 new hampshire, 1 speckled sussex, 1 delaware, 1 golden comet, 1 barred rock, and 1 cookoo maran. My roos are an easter egger and a buff orpington. My buff orpington in probably 2.5 to 3 yrs old and was bought about a month ago (with 4 others) at a local auction. He was with 14 buff orpington hens and they all looking heathy. I bought him because he was so studly and striking in appearance. All went well until about 4 days ago when he started getting lethargic and acting like he had lost all energy. He either lays around a on the ground sleeping, or sleeps on the roost bars in the coop and doesn't seemed to be eating much. No nasal discharge, but was sneezing for about 3 days before the sleeping set in. I had purchased 4 other hens at the same auction and one of them got sick and died, but she had nasal discharge and congestion and had lost an eye from being pecked by the other chickens. ...Everyone else is healthy. Any thoughts?
Greetings from Kansas, PeckingPrepper, and . Pleased you joined us but sorry it's under these circumstances. Sounds like you have a dilemma. There is always a risk of purchasing birds at auction. Are they healthy? Will they cause my birds to become sick? Obviously a little late for this link but it's still worth a read https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/...often-underestimated-part-of-raising-chickens Here's is the place to post about the additional health concerns you may have https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/10/emergencies-diseases-injuries-and-cures Best wishes to you and the health of your flock!
Welcome to BYC! It's great to have you. Have you introduced them to your flock yet? If not, keep them far, far away. Sounds like pretty classic infectious respiratory disease (usually caused by mycoplasma). I would strongly recommend having them blood tested by a vet, as it's the only way to confirm. Chickens don't get colds, so when you're seeing respiratory symptoms in more than one bird (even something as benign-seeming as sneezing), it's almost always infectious respiratory disease.
Hi Glad you could join us here! Great advice there for you from the previous posters. Those are some lovely breeds you have there. Please do check out the links left for you, I'm sure you will find them very helpful. Wishing you the very best of luck for the future and enjoy your time here on BYC
Welcome to the Backyard Chickens flock. I hope with treatment, your bird(s) will have the best possible outcome.
Hello there and welcome to Backyard chickens! I am sorry to hear about your chickens. I agree with all the above posts, and don't have anything to add, so I will say hello and wish you the best of luck!
Thanks to all for the warm welcome. I did have to put the Buff Orpington rooster down as he got worse and was a threat to the others. My wife found some water soluble antibiotics at different feed store and am now treating the flock. Hopefully, this will prevent further losses of our babies.
