HELP! Respiratory Illness

[1ADAM12]

Hey everyone! I had to cull one of my hens last Saturday. She was wheezing and sneezing and the others were picking on her pretty violently. Well yesterday two more came down with the same sickness. A hen and a roo. From what I have read online people recommend to
Cull your whole flock, disinfect everything and wait two to three months before you get new birds.

I understand that my birds may look fine but could still be a carrier of this virus and infect other birds I add to the flock. So before I make the rash decision to cull my whole flock what would most of you do? Anyone have experience with this kind of illness? I have 2 Roos and 14 hens. I would hate to have to start over. I even have hatchlings that have not started laying yet.

Please help!

 

[Kiki]

What are the exact symptoms?
Have you tried antibiotics yet?

 

[elaineinspain]

if you keep a closed flock (not get anymore new birds, nor give any away or sell) you can treat your birds with denagard antibiotics. It works well for bacterial infections. Won't help if it's viral or fungal though...
give 4 ml per litre of water for 5 days. make sure the birds only have acces to medicated water.
or you can put 4ml in a serving of fermented feed. for 5 days.

 

[1ADAM12]

From what I keep reading it most likely is infectious bronchitis. The sick birds have all the same symptoms that I am reading about!

 

[elaineinspain]

From what I keep reading it most likely is infectious bronchitis. The sick birds have all the same symptoms that I am reading about!

If you use denagard make sure you are giving the chickens UNmedicated feed. mixing medicated feed and denagard (Tiamulin antibiotic) can have fatal results.
BTW it's safe to eat the eggs while giving denagard.

If the bronchitis is viral, the antibiotics will certainly help secondary symptoms, but won't get rid of it.

 

[elaineinspain]

From what I keep reading it most likely is infectious bronchitis. The sick birds have all the same symptoms that I am reading about!

...or you can go the more natural route and use oregano oil.
1 drop in a serving of fermented feed or mash. (20 drops are in 1 ml)

 

[Kiki]

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/poult.../overview-of-infectious-bronchitis-in-poultry

 

[1ADAM12]

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/poult.../overview-of-infectious-bronchitis-in-poultry

Thanks for the link. My wife and I researched the crap out of this and everything we read was a negative outcome. I took it upon myself and I culled the entire flock. 17 in all! It was very hard for me to do
But necessary. This disease spread very rapidly and within 3 days of one being sick 4 more were sick shortly after.

We have since cleaned the coop and sanitized everything with bleach and water. This is very discouraging since we have only been chicken hobbiest since last April where we started and raised our one day old chicks. We even added more one day old chicks this past April. All and all this just sucks. A month ago we ordered the Taj Mahol of chicken coops and it will be here in about 2 weeks. We are having the Amish build it for us. Now we have no chickens to put in it I really miss hearing the rooster crow. He was the sweetest little guy too!!!!

 

[Kiki]

I am sorry you had to go through that.
Did you save a body or two to send for necropsy so you know FOR SURE what you were dealing with?

 

[1ADAM12]

I am sorry you had to go through that.
Did you save a body or two to send for necropsy so you know FOR SURE what you were dealing with?

No I did not. Symptoms were spot on from what I read though. Sneezing and wheezing! I did put one chicken out for
Bait and caught a fox the other night though. Circle of life I guess