Help with sick chickens!

[tbthistle]

Hi,
I am so glad I found this forum. We made a huge mistake that were unaware of at the time and introduced 12 layers into our flock of buff orpingtons and mixed breed layers without quarantining them. They have subsequently developed respiratory symptoms and 2 have died. This has probably been over the past couple of weeks without us really realizing it was going on...their symptoms are swollen eyes, one was bubbly, some with nasal discharge, and coughing/wheezing. I started terramycin in their water 800mg/gallon 3 days ago and I noticed very slight improvement, mostly in their eye symptoms. We found the second one dead tonight. The rest are eating/drinking but not laying and quieter than normal. I read on this forum about Tylan and thought about that, but wanted to throw out the question about empiric treatment vs. necropsy vs. flock eradication. I hate the thought of eradicating the flock and starting over but I partially feel that we are now over our head and will never get rid of whatever we have. It's not particularly smelly like IC but not sure if it's one of the other infections CRD etc. We bought these chickens to be layers and really eventually need eggs so am trying to be pragmatic, but I love my original flock and hate the thought of starting over (but will if it makes the most sense). Thank you!
p.s. I also bought some elctrolytes to add to their water...

 

[ole-crone]

How many besides the 12 layers?

Is the illness in both flocks?

I know that it probably might not help but if they were mine and I had the room, I'd separate them into three, preferably four groups.
1. original group - appears well
2. original group - showing illness
3. new layers - appears well
4. new layers - showing illness

The reason I wouldn't separate them into just two groups is because you don't know what you're dealing with so you might as well keep them separated and see what happens.

As far as what to do - I'd wait on that too. No use in killing everyone - especially those you are fond of - if they might survive whatever is going on.

Try to determine the problem and then you can decide whether to cull or not.

 

[Chickenaddict]

It sounds like you got a bad case of CRD. I could be wrong but i think you can use sulmet in their water for 4 to 6 days. CRD makes them carriers for life so if you ever introduced new birds they would get it from your flock? Look up on here CRD im sure there are a ton of threads on it and what to use to treat them ect. I hope they get better for you

 

[BayCityBabe]

I had a bad "crud" a few months ago. (And, yes, it was from introducing a couple new birds...) The new birds never showed symptoms, but about half my original flock had sneezing, wheezing and puffy eyes. I treated the whole gang with Sulmet (in the water) for a week. I also gave injections of Tylan to a couple of birds that were in especially rough shape. What I learned from this forum, some other research and a friend who is a commercial breeder is that without vet testing, we really can only guess. I never had a dead bird to send in for necropsy. If you have one, I would suggest getting it tested. (Call your local extension). My understanding is that many illnesses have similar symptoms and you will not know if your flock are "carriers" without a diagnosis.
Check out this informative (yet not very illuminating) link:
http://www.msstate.edu/dept/poultry/diagext.htm
It tells about all the poultry illnesses, but it becomes clear that we backyarders cannot really diagnose on our own.
Best of luck to you.