Hen shaking head, expelling discharge from nostrils, sounds raspy. Farm supply said culling is my only option. Please help

[BoudiccaBird95]

We had a dog get in and kill all but one hen recently and after double reinforcing the enclosure decided to get our lone survivor 2 pullets so I got 2 laying hens from a local farm supply and when putting them in their enclosure I noticed one smelled really bad but assumed it may have rolled around in its poop on the drive home. 2 days later when I let the hens out of their enclosure to mingle with our older existing hen I noticed that one sounds raspy when breathing and will shake its head vigorously to expel some kind of discharge from its nostrils and it smells awful. I checked for wounds but didn’t see anything. Otherwise its behaving normally..eating and drinking. I’ve only had the hens for 2 days so I called the farm supply to ask about it and the manager told me if I culled it I could either get a refund or new chickens. I asked if there was anything I could do to help and he said “not really, most people don’t want to bring chickens to the vet and the meds don’t usually work anyway” . I’ve been lucky the last 3 years to not have any health issues with our hens so I’ve never dealt with sick birds. Can I give them fish antibiotics? We are way out in the boonies and the nearest vet is about an hour drive. Any idea what they may be sick with? Droppings look normal as far as I can tell.

This is my first post here. Thanks in advance!

This is the sick girl

 

[Anon112]

You need to immediately quarantine both hens from the farm supply place. Respiratory illnesses are incredibly contagious.

For the really sick girl: if behavior, eating, drinking, and pooping are all normal, try general treatments for respiratory ailments. I wouldn't cull if she's otherwise doing okay.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

We had a dog get in and kill all but one hen recently and after double reinforcing the enclosure decided to get our lone survivor 2 pullets so I got 2 laying hens from a local farm supply and when putting them in their enclosure I noticed one smelled really bad but assumed it may have rolled around in its poop on the drive home. 2 days later when I let the hens out of their enclosure to mingle with our older existing hen I noticed that one sounds raspy when breathing and will shake its head vigorously to expel some kind of discharge from its nostrils and it smells awful. I checked for wounds but didn’t see anything. Otherwise its behaving normally..eating and drinking. I’ve only had the hens for 2 days so I called the farm supply to ask about it and the manager told me if I culled it I could either get a refund or new chickens. I asked if there was anything I could do to help and he said “not really, most people don’t want to bring chickens to the vet and the meds don’t usually work anyway” . I’ve been lucky the last 3 years to not have any health issues with our hens so I’ve never dealt with sick birds. Can I give them fish antibiotics? We are way out in the boonies and the nearest vet is about an hour drive. Any idea what they may be sick with? Droppings look normal as far as I can tell.

This is my first post here. Thanks in advance!

View attachment 4226751This is the sick girl

Welcome To BYC

Do you see bubbles in the eyes? I think I see some in the photos, but it's hard to tell.

A bad odor is concerning. Can you look inside the beak for any signs of lesions, canker or yellow pasty material?

How is the crop? Is it emptying overnight? Just trying to rule out the bad odor is not sour crop.

Usually a respiratory illness that has a bad or rotten odor is Infectious Coryza. If this is indeed IC that you are dealing with, then you'll want a sulfa antibiotic. Some of these are getting a bit harder to find. I'll put a link below.

Bubbles in the eyes is usually an indication of Mycoplasma, the odor though would point more toward IC. If this is MG (Mycoplasma), then you can use Tylosin or Tiamulin to treat symptoms.

Both of the diseases make birds carriers for life, even if they recover.

You mention fish antibiotics - there's a wide variety of those. If you are talking about Fish Mox (Amoxicillin) this will not treat either of these respiratory diseases. If you have something else, let us know.

https://jedds.com/products/trimethoprin-sulfa-medpet?_pos=1&_sid=ea4edee26&_ss=r