Have you ever had to cull a whole flock?

[spuetz07]

I think some of my chickens are sick....here's my story.
About a month ago I added to my flock with 5 hens (my flock contains 5 roosters and 2 hens). I found out the 5 hens were very sick, but I didn't know at that point that I had to keep them separated for a few weeks before introducing them to my flock. About a week after I got the hens, I realized how sick they really were (sneezing all the time, foul smell, lots of runny noses). So, they were gone after one week.

Now, my big rooster, the one who claims both hens, begins to crow very weak and sounds like he is gasping when he inhales (it's kind of like a gurgling sound). One of the hens has a runny nose.

I am sick that maybe I should just start all over with chickens. Im not sure how to go about doing this either. I have a brooder box in the coop with 10 chicks about 3 months old.
Have you ever had to cull a whole flock and start over? If so, how to you do it? It breaks my heart to lose all my chickens because of one stupid mistake. What do you do with 17 culled chickens? (Assuming the chicks are sick as well).

 

[pipermark]

I once purchased 4 golden laced wyandottes at a swap meet. They had Infectious Coryza. While they say mortality is low, I lost 2 fairly quickly, I saved the rest by providing them with penicillin G injections. In this case I "culled" my flock by giving it to someone else. Why? the recovered birds can be carriers of the disease and , at the time, I was into showing birds.

I did inform the person that the birds were carriers and that if they tried adding additional birds they would most likely fall ill.


If you do the same don't forget to disinfect everything with a Clorox solution. I would also try my best to determine what it was that my birds had, this way you can best determine when it would be safe to bring new birds back onto your property. Some viruses or bactieria can hang around for months just waiting for a new host.

 

[Katy]

You already have several other threads on this same issue...do you have new questions?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=186837
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=186720
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=174806