Help please tell me what to do??

[cjexotic]

I have a Silkie and a Rock x Cornish cross.. that is sneezing and is droopy. I separated them before coming to work and gave some VetX to start to help hopefully. here is the info you need.

1) Silkie (10 months) Rock (6weeks) don't know weight of silkie. Rock 4lbs

2) What is the behavior, exactly. Silkie has lost weight, is sneezing and watery eyes. Rock is sneezing and like gasping for air. Both are eating.

3) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
No
4) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation. Don't know.

5) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
Water, and chick/gamebird starter/grower 22% and the silkie Layer crumbles Blue Seal..
6) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc. NORMAL ON BOTH.
7) What has been the treatment you have administered so far? VETX
8 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet? TREAT MYSELF
9) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help. NO PIC
10) Describe the housing/bedding in use IN A COOP WITH WOOD CHIPS AND STRAW. HAVE ALWAYS USED WOODCHIPS PLAIN NO CEDAR.

I have been lucky and not had any birds sick so I am panicking..

Thanks

edited to include: Silkie is shaking her head like your topknot is in her eyes. Eyes are watery on both of them.

 

[threehorses]

Sounds like something brought in a virus to them. If their discharge is clear, and it's a virus, there's not much that you can do other than supportive treatment.

If the respiratory illness is bacterial, you could treat with antibiotics. Usually I only do this is there's cloudiness or stickiness of their drainage. Then I use injections. My preference. Others use packaged oral antibiotics. I feel they're too hard on the digestive tract. But some things could be done to help that if you simply don't have any access to a feedstore with injectibles.

In either case, VetRx is a nice start. that stuff is great. When you get home, you can use clean q-tips dipped in a diluted VetRx and warm water and swab their nares, the hole in the roof of their beak (press the VetRx up in there well with a soaked q-tip), put it under their eyes near their tear ducts. You can use as directed on the bottle in their water so that they treat their beaks. I even will put it wherever they put their heads at night - like under their wing. It's not a treatment, but the vapors help the sinuses and help them to breathe better. Keeping oxygen in their inflammed and filling sinuses is important to healing. Bacteria hate oxygen.

Boost their nutrition to support their healing: best food, vitamins/electrolytes in their water if you have them. I like giving egg yolks to a) tempt them to eat, and b) give them a little more protein to help fuel their battle against their bug.

I also *always* give probiotics to a stressed or ill bird. The reason is that stressed birds' digestive tracts are effected and slow down during stress times. Birds with respiratory drainage get that drainage into their digestive tract through sinus drainage (that opening in the roof of their beak that I asked you to swab). The bad bacteria and pH change overwhelm the good bacteria. And the good bacteria are absolutely necessary to a) prevent bad, and b) digest undigestible fibers left by the gizzard. So bolster the good-bacteria-defense by using probiotics. Yogurt (unless you decide to use tetracycline or any ----mycin drug), Probios or Fastrack from the feedstore, a tiny bit of bird starting food (Kaytee, etc) from the Petstore. Acidophilus or, better yet, women's yeast infection treating probiotic capsules from the health food store. The latter has B. bifidum which aids in preventing secondary E. coli infections when the good bacteria aren't strong enough to fight on their own.

Vitamin E capsules (oil) are good, too, to put into a little special treat mash of yogurt, wet crumbles, possibly egg yolk, and a capsule. Vitamin E helps anti-oxidize, helps respiratory and neurological issues. Wheat germ oil, a small container, is a nice thing to have around the chicken coop for times like these - well inside in a cool place rather. A capful of it to four cups of feed gives a nice dose of A, D, and E. You could use the amount that you would get in a capsule for a small treat-sized dose of food to get the probiotics in the bird. (Applesauce is also a nice enticer to get them to eat the fixed-treat. It also has pectin that helps the digestive tract.)

Let us know what's going on with them when you get home, and we'll go from there. It'll at least take a few days for them to get over what they have. If it's a virus, then hopefully they won't develop any secondary bacterial infections and you can just do the bolstering without any antibiotics. Then they'll develop a resistance. You'll need to remember that if you add any new birds - the new birds won't have a resistance and will probably come up with the same illness. So remember how you successfully treat this one.

 

[cjexotic]

Thank you very much. No new birds or anything different at all.
Is the watery eyes from the infection? The Rock was gasping this morning in between eating.
the Vitamin E capsule does it matter what dose they are. I know i have some at home but not sure how strong they are.
So if I understand right. wet starter crumbles, add yogurt (which is a probiotic) then break the vitamin e capsule in and mix. I have wheat germ oil do I add it to this mix?

I have a bottle of probolic that I got incase I needed it for my parrots. Will this work also?

I do feed a good grade of food. Chicks get 22% chick/gamebird crumbles.
Older birds get 20% layer crumbles. I also have a seed mix of flax, rolled oats, rolled oats, sunflower hearts, safflower, vitamins all mixed they get that 2 times a week.. Not the chicks but once on layer I do this. also give red cell and wheat germ. Some times I forget to give it though. Can these two have the red cell to help?

Thank you so much for your help. cj

 

[threehorses]

If you have wheat germ oil, you can add the equivalent of a capsule to a half cup to a cup of the mash, sure. Or what you would use for a parrot. I've used the redcell on my chickens before, too, and it could help. I wouldn't use a much though - mostly I used that only on a debilitated bird in a pinch, or for maintenance or my breeders. I think the wheat germ oil would spot treat.

And yes - definitely use the parrot probiotic instead. Duh, I just realized you have parrots. (Mine's fussing at me right now because I'm doing this and not paying attention to her lol).

Pretty much, on the vitamins, think of her as a parrot of the same size. And also you seem to feed like a parrot owner. LOL That's a GOOD thing.

Since you own parrots, you know to make very sure that you don't at all expose them to your clothes/shoes/etc that you had with the poultry. Throw your clothes in the washer and that pair of shoes stays in the mudroom.

 

[cjexotic]

Thanks.. Is the yogart what you call probolic also?
I have had this probolic in a container in the freezer incase I ever needed it for the parrots. I never have so that is a good thing. but then i forget I have it. lol

 

[threehorses]

The yogurt fits into the category of probiotic because of its live cultures, yes. It's not my favorite, but it's the easiest for people to get.

Honestly, I had a probiotic I used to use for my parrots, but I can't for the life of me remember its name! I kept it in the fridge for 'just in case' use. It was really nice, aimed towards avians.

There are some good ones out there for our parrots. Maybe the poultry world will catch on soon.

 

[cjexotic]

Thought I would give and update as of this morning.
I made warm mash from the starter/growner and added some sulfa??. The feed store gave it to me. They are no longer allowed to sell Terramyacine and this sulfa something replaced it.
I was there to get a bag of gamebird starter and told him of my two sick birds. He just gave me the bag and a bag of bird vitamins to go in the water. I went home and made them mash (the rock baby is the worse. you could her him trying to breath from 5' away from him). I put a bit of sulf?? just a slight pinch in his water and in his food. Mixed a bit of yogart in and some wheat germ. I cleaned his nostrils with the vetx as you recommended. I gave him a couple drops via beak. Put some under both wings and on his head. I put a couple drops in his water. The morning he was up eating and he only sneezed a couple times. I did not hear him breath like last night. His eyes were brighter and he came right to me. I have him in a dog shipping crate. I went today and found the poly vi sol and got the vitamin e gell capsules to try. I did not see until after I got back from buying the vitamin e that I should have got with selinum. ~sigh~ I also got b-12 liquid caps.
Now that I do not know how much to give. Also the vitamin e what IU was I suppose to get?
What I got is vitamin e 400 IU
and b-12 1000mcg
how much do I give to a year old and a 6 wks.

edit to include:

Thank you for your help. Now I forgot do I give the yogart with the soft foods.. and how long do I do it? Got that today also.
I was so excited to see him up and happy to see me. The hen could care less about me. She only likes food and her water. lol

 

[threehorses]

If you can get him to eat the yogurt on its own, that would work. I just give it with the soft food - mixed in - so they can't protest about the weird texture.

On the sulfa - is it sulfamethoxazine? Probably Sulmet? Anything sulfurous is an antibiotic and should be used as such. If there's labeling instructions, I'd follow them.

But in the mean time, brilliant that he's doing so much better! Just keep doing everything for a week's time to followup and make sure he's good. Wonderful news!