I’m pretty sure I’m dealing with respiratory disease with my 2 week old Cornish crosses, help, advice appreciated.

[Corgo]

I’m having a hard time with these chickens, everything I‘ve raised up until now has been easy compared to these meat birds. I have 39, they turned 2 weeks old today. They all look fine, have been active, are eating, poop is fine, no blood. I have kept their brooder super clean, offered clean water and everyone is eating fine. Bedding is pine shavings, I clean it out daily. Today they all started sneezing and sound raspy/rattley when breathing, no discharge at all from what I see. This came on quickly. I’ve been reading and reading, it looks like I need antibiotics .. but it’s not sold without a prescription? I guess I need to contact our vet in the morning and see if she can help? Thoughts or advice is welcome, I raised lots of layers and never had these problems.

 

[Kiki]

Can you take a video of them now and upload it to Youtube?

 

[sdm111]

It's the shavings

 

[Corgo]

Can you take a video of them now and upload it to Youtube?

Hope this works .. It actually sounds a lot louder on the video than it is really is, but that’s the raspy sound .. the mic is amplifying the noise.

 

[Corgo]

It's the shavings

I had wondered that, but I’ve raised all my layers on pine shavings and have never dealt with this before. This is my first batch of meat birds, I just want them to be healthy.

 

[americanchicks]

For me it seems the more CX I raise at once the more issues I have. I now only raise groups of 20 or less. Sounds like infectious bronchitis. Its pretty common I had if effect my meaties in the past. Its viral and needs to run its course. Antibiotics can hep with the fluid. Make sure you keep things clean because it can be spread to your layers. You can also try contacting your state department of agriculture. I contacted ours in WA. They have an avian vet there that was very helpful with an issue I had. They may be able to recommend a course of action. Good Luck.

 

[Corgo]

For me it seems the more CX I raise at once the more issues I have. I now only raise groups of 20 or less. Sounds like infectious bronchitis. Its pretty common I had if effect my meaties in the past. Its viral and needs to run its course. Antibiotics can hep with the fluid. Make sure you keep things clean because it can be spread to your layers. You can also try contacting your state department of agriculture. I contacted ours in WA. They have an avian vet there that was very helpful with an issue I had. They may be able to recommend a course of action. Good Luck.

Thank you for the help, yes .. If I could go back I think I would have started with a group of 10-20. Right now I don’t have layers, so this is contained to just this flock. I’m going to contact our vet when she opens this morning and see if she can help. We’ve known her a long time, she has a small farm. She rescues horses, I know she keeps goats and chickens too. I will also try calling the State department of AG. My middle daughter goes to NC State for Engineering and I know they have a huge poultry science department also, just not sure with everything that’s going on there would be anyone to contact. She’s actually home, going to school online. When this happened to your flock did you end up harvesting them to eat or did you cull them?

 

[Corgo]

infectious bronchitis

So after reading, this is a Coronavirus?

 

[Themagicone]

Its normal... don't panic. Make sure the bedding is always clean. As it gets full of poop it builds up the smell. But my cornish do it from time to time. Search around the board and this is super common for this breed.

 

[Corgo]

Its normal... don't panic. Make sure the bedding is always clean. As it gets full of poop it builds up the smell. But my cornish do it from time to time. Search around the board and this is super common for this breed.

Thanks, I have read that the sneezing is common, the raspiness is what I was worried about.