help help help!!! Antibiotics? Sick bird... Update

[dlhunicorn]

ditto silkie and cyn... only thing I would add is when you add new birds to your flock (not talking about day-old chickies but older birds) the move and stress can really weaken them...many times they will start sneezing, go off their feed and drink and secondary complications will rapidly take hold... so add a good general supplement like aviacharge 2000 and/or polyvisol enfamil (three drops in beak once a day for a week > vit A deficiency often goes hand in hand with respiratory symptoms)
Many indeed do not mess with treatment but simply cull at the first sign of continued illness when the bird cannot recover with basic general support measures such as added supplements. heat oxine etc. (however as I said before these respiratory symptoms often occur with shifts in the weather and with newly acquired birds)
There are many meds to treat resp illness but in chickens tylan seems to be the "general" one that often gives good results
Here is a vet article on respiratory illness and altho much of it will be of little use to you, please note the reference to using tylan and as a mist/nebulization:
http://www.redrobe.com/sharon/avian-respiratory-diseases.html

and here the relavent chapter from avian med:
http://www.avianmedicine.net/ampa/22.pdf
(please do not quote or excerpt online)

It is up to you to decide if you wish to treat or cull. In the future though assume a newly acquired bird will weaken and take general support measures to prevent it getting to this stage.

 

[Beau coop]

She is still sneezing. Her breathing is audible. She is eating and drinking, and pooping. She is making a weird "cawing" sound though.

I don't think she is better, but she doesn't seem worse. How long should I give her to get better?

 

[the1much]

like in us, we need to take 1 or 2 doses before it actually gets into our blood stream and starts working, i would go at least 3 days before deciding you might need to go a different route,,,,,as long as she isnt getting worse, if she gets worse, i would try something else, or find some one close by with experience with chickens,,, or a vet and check her out

 

[swtangel321]

My vet said to give 5 days of anti's, so im going to give her the full 5 days and see if that works. If after that she is not better or not making any improvement hubby will cull. So I would say at least give her 5 days.

 

[Beau coop]

Update: My OEGB has had 4 injections of pen aqueous. The guy at TSC said it was stronger than Tylan. Her breathing seems worse, wet. Her sneezing has decreased. Not coughing any more. But it sounds like she is breathing thru a wet washcloth.

What do you guys think?

 

[the1much]

VetRX ,, 1 drop down the mouth, then a drop rubbed under both wings,,, its like "vicks vapor rub" for us,, is the only other thing i can think of,, maybe soon someone who's had the same problem will chime in.

 

[Beau coop]

Update: We completed a course of pen aqueous and she's still sneezing. She has an appetite, but just for crumbles mixed with water. Started having poop that looked exactly like the crumbles on the way in. Started plain yogurt and ACV. Is it ok to do both at the same time?

Oxine should arrive tomorrow. If fed ex will just leave it(without signature) I will nebulize her when I get home from work. Hang in there DC!!

 

[the1much]

i dont know if its o.k. ,, the only 2 meds ive used are the pen., and the vet rx ,, and ive done them at the same time,, in fact ,, whats AVC? .
it stinks,,but not really,, that i dont know more about meds.,, but ive been lucky, and have only had to use those 2 meds and thats it.
sorry im not much help.

 

[Beau coop]

acv= apple cider vinegar

Thanks for staying with me through this! It's nice to know someone is out there.

 

[BethinIrving]

I think an important thing to do, in addition to antibiotic therapy is making sure the water container is clean and sanitized. Pathogens get in there, grow, then all the chickens take gulps and whammo -- one or all get sick.

One of my hens got sick and I could not figure out how it got infected. It was the water containers. Those things were germ pits.

I always emptied all of them every day and refilled them, but after Doe (now a hen, but then had just feathered) got sick, those things get scrubbed and sanitized every day.

My hen was only sick a day or two and she's fine now. She lays every day!

I put two tablespoons of antibiotic powder in all the water containers (they are one gallon each), and continued it 14 days. Also I mix chick starter crumbles that have antibiotic in with the hen scratch. I don't feed my hens laying mash. I also put one tablespoon of powdered baby milk formula on top of the grain -- just sprinkled it on. I always empty the water containers the next morning even if there is some antibiotic still in there, and scrub and santize as usual. It seems like I also cooked her some yummy chicken bullion and rice as well.

The feed stores, and of course the hatchery have treatments. It's not expensive. Good luck with your bird.