I feel like kicking and screaming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[robbdebbie]

So, it all started out with either the Fair or some shipped birds. Bubbly eyes, sneezing, fluffing up...

I know, I know cull cull cull. Unfortunatly by the time I figured this all out everyone in my flock had been exposed. I spoke with many vets (the state poultry vet included), and did everything they said to do. Tylan 50 inject, ACV in water, Bird Vitamins, and yougurt for good measure.

It seemed like everything was going better when my favorite Serama rooster didn't really recover. I finally culled him.

Then my group of babies (who were on medicated starter away from the sick birds) started getting cocci and dying. I am now down to 2 of 13 silkies, and 3 of 9 Ameraucanas. Sulmet in the water every day new water. They still kept dying.

Then the mites started taking over. Dusted with dust, changed the bedding, put DE and dust all over, then used Ivermectin pour on for everyone.

Once again the coop seemed to be recovering.

Now it is back with the mites, and to top it all off...

FOWL POX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry for yelling.

I am just sitting here crying.


What was I supposed to do? Kill them all? Then what happens when I get new birds and they get it? It would have been all for nothing. What am I doing wrong that all my birds are getting this junk? It is winter for goodness sakes. There are no mosquitos around now. My turkeys are now sneezing, my buff orpingtons have fowl pox all over them, my silkies and showgirls are getting bad with the CRD, and my seramas are covered in mites.

I have babies in the incubator. I don't want to subject any more birds to whatever is going on in my house. I guess that I will just give them away when they hatch. If anyone has any advice on anything I could do please tell me.


Thanks,
Debbie

 

[redhen]

I'm so sorry!

 

[redhen]

If i was a show bird person and i went to shows and sold eggs..i'd cull them all and start over.
But if your not..if they are just for your family..then i'd keep them and try to make them well..

 

[Plain Old Dee]

I can understand how you feel. When we originally had chickens 20+ years ago, we never worried about diseases or anything like that. We lost a few hens to possums and coons, but not many. I rarely heard a hen sneeze - and we had a LOT of hens (60+). We lost all of our hens in a disasterous dog attack and were so upset we just cleaned up the mess and left the henhouse to rot.

Now we have chickens again!

Grandson started it - caught a couple of hens in a rodeo event and we brought them home. Didn't want to leave them in the little rabbit cage we had them in so we built a henhouse. DH was wise - he built it way larger than we needed for just two hens. They looked so pathetic in their all by themselves. Daughter and I bought some BO and RIR pullets and put in with them. Big mistake. We bought the pullets from a breeder. I noticed a couple of them seemed to be sneezing, but didn't think much of it.

Didn't know at the time that chickens don't catch colds. A few days later, a neighbor had to sell off his flock of mixed chickens. We bought all of the pullets he had, and a quad of something... Don't know what they are but they are big and beautiful. Suddenly, every one of them were sneezing and wheezing. We lost one of the two barred rock pullets before we knew what hit us. We lost two more BO pullets and a RIR before whatever it was dissappeared as suddenly as it appeared. Now they've finally started laying. 20 hens/pullets and we are getting one or two (once we got three) eggs a day. They aren't small eggs, so I suspect it's the hens from the quad that are the ones that are laying - they're a couple of years old and the pullets are only just now about 6 - 7 months old. Hopefully, they'll start laying soon - we have a LOT of mouths to feed these days.

Now we have what I suspect are mites, too.

I will be getting some sevin dust come payday (they aren't bad right now and I am hoping they won't get bad too fast) I think the mites are drawn to a weakened flock. Mine are improving a lot from when they were sick - gaining back the weight they lost. Mites are just something that have to be dealt with - we have a large wild bird population and I think that's where they probably came from.

I hope the die-off is over. It's hard explaining to my young grandkids why the chickies die so often...

 

[lngrid]

I don't know a lot about chickens other than what I've read here and on other sites this place has led me to, but Robert Plamondon talks about how he treats for roost mites on his farm. Used motor oil sounds a bit scarey to me. I wonder if you could use Vaseline instead? Vaseline is a patroleum byproduct, but it's edible (I'm not recommending that, but its inventor lived to his eighties and ate it daily

).

I also was looking at the website of a woman near me who breeds show-quality araucanas. I noticed that her roosts were metal rods and the walls of her chicken coop were cinder-block. She didn't say so but I was wondering if this was her way of protecting her valuable flock from roost mites...

I'm sorry to hear you're having such a hard time. I wish I knew more and could offer better help.

 

[ivan3]

If it is dry pox then paint the the pustules with iodine and not worry further (if it's not the wet form they should recover). The mites? Tear the coop(s) apart again and replace all bedding. Mix Orange Guard with Tea Tree Oil (as good as eprinex at killing mites but can't be used directly on birds) and spray every crook and cranny, rub down all roosts with it and any crevices where roosts meet walls. Treat the birds with eprinex again. If I had a mite infestation as severe as you describe, I'd put on my headlamp, pull on my magnifying headset, pour some eprinex in a spray bottle and go out curry combing the chooks for the varmints (most active at night).

Did you hatch the chicks with cocci? Have you treated them with eprinex? (thread with dosing for the pour-on): https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=96773&p=1

How many of your poultry are not symptomatic (no signs of anything)? I'd be tempted to separate them just on the off chance they hadn't been affected, yet.

Try to work the triage, it helps when overwhelmed. Who is well, who is sickest, what is the priorty that needs dealt with immediately.

If another expires from the respiratory? problem have it necroscopied (knowing what is wrong is also a big help).

I wouldn't cull until I was sure about why I was culling. The pox and the mites can be dealt with; the former by time, the latter by more poison (might even have to place the one's that are worst off in a separate pen on a bed of sand mixed with sevin and DE).

Sure wish you the best!

 

[VTGIRL]

Wow I'm so sorry for your troubles. I just had a hen die of Cocci and one who is symptomatic. I have about nine 3 week old silikies in the brooder that I am scared as heck to introduce to the flock once the time comes.

LynneP sent me a link to another thread involving Cocci and someone on there mentioned Oxine as a disinfectant for the birds and the coop/run. I've ordered some and am chomping at the bit until it comes. Maybe you can look that up on here. I think it will help disinfect your coop and birds (it is safe for humans and chickens) I will try to post the link for you

 

[VTGIRL]

here you go... hope this helps
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=2778398

 

[robbdebbie]

Thanks a lot everyone! I just love my chickens so much, and I feel so bad for them. I don't want any to die or feel pain. I am going to get the chemicals and treatments listed, and clean/treat next week when it comes in. I will let everyone know how it all turns out.

Thanks,
Debbie

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Eprinex will not treat coccidiosis. For that you need a coccidiastat or a coccidiacide. Corrid and sulmet are the most frequently used, but there are others. They begin working very rapidly, so if it is not working withint 24 hours it is either not coccidiosis or the coccidia are resistant to the particular drug you are using.

The mites are probably what is spreading the fowl pox if you don't have mosquitos now. Any biting insect can spread it. My personal recommendation is to separate birds who are ill, spray down your coop, all roosts, nestboxes, etc and also your birds with malathion or permethrin or similar. Treat the birds as well--eprinex is good here, although sevin or permethrin powder or flea/tick spray are also good. Then spray repellant in the coops and on the birds nightly until they are all fully recovered. Definitely treat the lesions with iodine or blue-kote or a similar anti-microbial. If any develop lesions in their mouths, swab twice daily with listerine (original horrid tasting stuff, not the namby-pamby new version), removing as much of the lesions as you can each time.