Hens laying again after a YEAR of NO EGGS!! Keep up Baytril?

[PoultryPedia]

CELEBRATION!!!!!!!!!!

My two hens that hadn't laid eggs in over a YEAR started laying again this week!!! And my rooster is finally back to breeding! (He hadn't much for months.)

You can just imagine my surprised delight when I walked outside the other day and was greeted by "the egg song."

My three chickens have had Chronic Respiratory Disease (CRD) from a serious strain of Mycoplasma Gallisepticum (MG), as well as a mild case of Coryza. When I got the hens several months ago, the previous owner said the hens had laid fewer than 10 eggs during the last several months, but that he didn't know the cause. After I got them, I noticed their gurgling breathing, runny eye, etc., and figured out the problems.

Though CRD problems can be chronic, the hens are special to me & I am keeping them at this point.

This has been a red-letter week!!!

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Note: I respect anyone else's preferences about keeping immunity-compromised chickens & concerns about spreading serious diseases, but ask we leave discussion of those for other threads. Yes, I am keeping a closed flock & take precautions if visiting the home of another chicken owner. No, we aren't eating the eggs, though may hatch some eventually while taking appropriate measures to protect chicks.

 

[PoultryPedia]

In recent months, I'd tried treating the chickens with several classes of medicines— Tetracyclines, Macrolides, a Sulfa med, and Oxine. I've given lots of health-boosting foods, supplements & probiotics amongst the treatments, and given breaks of a few days between trying different antibiotics. The Coryza cleared up, but MG hung on. Terramycin reduced gurgling & sneezing a fair amount, but the symptoms returned.

I finally got hold of some Baytril, which I'd heard is almost magic for treating some diseases, particularly MG. (I've added a "Baytril for Birds" webpage on the PoultryPedia website, in case information I've researched may help others.) At the time I started giving Baytril, the chickens hadn't seemed to be sneezing or shaking their heads much for a while, but at least one had terribly gurgly breathing. I gave down-the-throat treatments of 0.25 mL about once daily for 11 days, though gave about 3 of the doses 12 to 24 hours overdue, so ended up with about 7 dosings.

After the thrill of the first egg, the next day I noticed the chickens are still sneezing some

though not shaking their heads.

I went ahead and gave Baytril another couple days & then stopped. I've given probiotics over the 4 days since, to try to help rebuild the chickens' antibiotic-bombarded systems.

The chickens seem happy & active, and the hens' combs are now ruddy red instead of just pink. And fertility has returned, so they are having a serious rebound of health.

But they are still sneezing.

Should I restart Baytril????

If there might be lingering bacteria that is vulnerable to Baytril, I want to kill it off before it can possibly develop resistance. The only specific hazard I know of with Baytril is that overdoing it might make a bird vulnerable to yeast infections. But I can give Oxine to minimize fungus risks, plus give probiotics spaced several hours apart from Baytril dosings.

3-5 days is the usual treatment time with Baytril, though I've heard of as long as 10 days. I gave a long time because my chickens' strain of MG has been SOOOOO tough to fight off. If I do restart Baytril, I'm thinking of going 6-8 days.

Any thoughts on whether that might be a good thing?

 

[pips&peeps]

Why don't you try some denagard, I think it will be cheaper than Baytril. Here is some information I have read about it.


http://www.tiamutin.com/vet-poultry/rec-use/en/breed.shtml

 

[bairo]

I think at this point I would stick solely with oxine fogging. Every two to three days I think would be sufficient. Sounds like you know how to do this, but I mix 7 ozs in gallon of water and use this through the humidifier for about 30 minutes at night when they are on the roost.

 

[dawg53]

I agree with pips&peeps, denagard treats the mycoplasma diseases, another link:
http://www.denagard.com/pig-poultry-public/en/index.shtml
Also, baytril has a 28 day withdrawal period. Denagard has no egg withdrawal period, a 2-3 day slaughter withdrawal. There is no resistance to denagard.
http://poultrykeeper.com/poultry-me...ytril-used-to-treat-respiratory-problems.html

 

[ChickChickChicky]

I am speaking from the point of being a caretaker of a person whose immunity was compromised due to chemotherapy and got several serious infections. Here are my thoughts on infection control.

1. Be ruthless. Pick an antibiotic that you're "pretty sure" will conquer the infection, then go one drug higher and use it for the maximum number of days at the maximum dose. I truly believe that much antibiotic resistance develops from wimpy antibiotic use. Do it once, do it right!

2. Absolutely give probiotics and/or yogurt AFTER any course of antibiotics. Giving it during antibiotic use is pretty pointless.

3. When giving antibiotics make sure that you're not dumping any additional bacterial loads on the patient(s). Practise strict sanitation and eliminate or severely restrict outside visitors... why add more stuff for the antibiotics to conquer? Clean and clean and clean some more to keep bacterial loads on the patient's surroundings to a minimum.

This is probably stuff you already know but just wanted to throw my 2 cents in. Hope your birds continue to feel better!

 

[speckledhen]

It's amazing that they're laying again, isn't it? I had several older hens crank up again after hiatus of 7-9 months. They weren't ill, just quit laying. I was worried about internal laying since so many have been lost to that here, but looks like I was happily wrong in these cases.

Since others have replied about the antibiotics, you're covered on that, but I love Oxine. Can't go wrong fogging with Oxine for most anything, especially fungal infections that antibiotics won't touch. Glad they seem to be functioning properly in that area again.

 

[PoultryPedia]

Update--
Thank you everyone for your ideas & good wishes! It SO helps to get these from other chicken people who understand & can help in sorting things out & who also care.

I decided to give Baytril another go at a stronger dose.
Baytril had brought some significant improvements, & I thought it might just need a stronger try. Also, I'm seeing Denegard would require another $50 for the smallest container & I only have the 3 chickens

, and I've already paid for the Baytril and have some left.
I'm going to regularly put Oxine in the drinking water for a few days to minimize risks of fungi moving in after all the antibiotics the chickens have had.
I may try nebulizing with Oxine some, too, if I can figure a way in this freezing weather.

I've given Baytril 3 additional days at 0.325 ml per chicken. As of yesterday, they were still sneezing.

Maybe an additional illness is causing the sneezing??? Anybody know of any disease that isn't affected by Baytril that could be causing the sneezing?

I'm going to start a separate thread on this to highlight that particular question. Please would you let me know if you have any idea?

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Update--
Thank you everyone for your ideas & good wishes! It SO helps to get these from other chicken people who understand & can help in sorting things out & who also care.

I decided to give Baytril another go at a stronger dose.
Baytril had brought some significant improvements, & I thought it might just need a stronger try. Also, I'm seeing Denegard would require another $50 for the smallest container & I only have the 3 chickens

, and I've already paid for the Baytril and have some left.
I'm going to regularly put Oxine in the drinking water for a few days to minimize risks of fungi moving in after all the antibiotics the chickens have had.
I may try nebulizing with Oxine some, too, if I can figure a way in this freezing weather.

I've given Baytril 3 additional days at 0.325 ml per chicken. As of yesterday, they were still sneezing.

Maybe an additional illness is causing the sneezing??? Anybody know of any disease that isn't affected by Baytril that could be causing the sneezing?

I'm going to start a separate thread on this to highlight that particular question. Please would you let me know if you have any idea?

Have you checked the poo lately with a fecal float for worms?

 

[PoultryPedia]

Thank you!!!!

I've been planning to deworm again (I did a few months ago with Wazine), but had forgotten. I just now put out some ivermectin paste & will give them some.

The rooster had a very foamy poop a few days ago, & I've read that can sometimes be a sign of worms, so maybe deworming is something they need right now. I'll do it tomorrow.