I need help!

[Crazy4Chicks10]

I bought new chickens yesterday and noticed that 2 of them have runny noses and sneeze occasionally. I put those two in the garage last night just in case. Today I noticed a gross smell coming from their nasal drainage. They do not act sick. They eat and drink normally and run around like crazy. No swelling of the face and no eye drainage. The only problem seems to be the stinky snot. They also do not gurgle or open mouth breathe. What should I do with them?

 

[Pyxis]

They have coryza. They carry it for life once they get it. You can treat the symptoms but not cure it. If you put them in with your other birds they will get it too. I hope you didn't get other birds with them and put them directly into your flock because they're likely carriers too and will spread it to your birds. If you don't want to deal with having sick birds for the rest of the time your flock is alive the only thing to do is to cull them.

 

[Crazy4Chicks10]

Oh no I have two other birds with no symptoms that I put with the flock. This is the third time I've bought chicks from the same breeder though. The other chickens I've gotten from her haven't been sick. Her chickens make up half my flock. The others are from a feed store. Is it likely that all my chickens I got from her are carriers?

 

[Pyxis]

It's possible, or she herself just got in new birds, didn't quarantine, and her birds became infected in between the time you got the first ones and the time you got these. At any rate, if you're going to keep them and not cull them, you now need to run a closed flock - no selling or giving any of your birds away. You'd just be spreading the disease to others. If you want to treat the symptoms there are some options.

I'd also let the breeder know so she stops selling people sick birds.

Also, are you sure she is breeding these herself, or could she be getting them in from other people? That's something else you may want to check into, because maybe they aren't from her own stock.

 

[Crazy4Chicks10]

When I spoke with her there she said she had not gotten any new birds. I'm concerned now for my flock as I do not want to run a closed flock. How do I know which of my other birds are carriers? I told her about the runny noses and the foul smell and she just said that she hadn't noticed anything in her flock.

 

[Crazy4Chicks10]

They are f

It's possible, or she herself just got in new birds, didn't quarantine, and her birds became infected in between the time you got the first ones and the time you got these. At any rate, if you're going to keep them and not cull them, you now need to run a closed flock - no selling or giving any of your birds away. You'd just be spreading the disease to others. If you want to treat the symptoms there are some options.

I'd also let the breeder know so she stops selling people sick birds.

Also, are you sure she is breeding these herself, or could she be getting them in from other people? That's something else you may want to check into, because maybe they aren't from her own stock.

They are from her own stock.

 

[Crazy4Chicks10]

I am beside myself because I feel I have doomed my entire flock of chickens. I love them and they are pets. They have not even started laying yet.

 

[Pyxis]

Unfortunately at this point you'd really have to assume they all are carriers. You may want to kill one of the ones showing symptoms and send it off for a necropsy to confirm it is indeed coryza before doing anything drastic like culling the whole flock, but at this point you may have to assume all your birds are carriers. The only way to safely not run a closed flock would be to cull them all and start over if it comes back that they have it. You may want to contact your state vet too and ask about testing for it - they may be able to test if you send them blood samples, I'm not sure. But the two sick ones should not be introduced to your flock under any circumstances if you want even a chance at maybe not having to run a closed flock with these birds. They need to be killed and disposed of far away from your birds.

Carriers only tend to show symptoms when stressed, so it's possible the move to your place was more stressful for the two that are showing symptoms than the others and that's why they appear sick and the others don't.

I'm really sorry about this, I had a similar thing happen to me with mycoplasma. I chose to cull.

 

[Crazy4Chicks10]

Thank you so much for your advice. I am just completely devastated. I hate the thought of having to kill the two sick ones. I will contact a vet tomorrow.

 

[Pyxis]

It is really hard, I hated having to cull mine but it had to be done You could always run a closed flock if you're really attached to your birds. You could even keep the two sick ones that way. Or if you decide against it, you can pay to have a vet put them down.

If you do decide to cull and don't want to pay the vet (it'll be expensive, chickens are considered exotics), I found cervical dislocation to be the most humane way. I used the broomstick method, where you lay the bird down on the ground on its stomach, lay a broomstick across the neck, stand on it on the end so it can't move, and then just grab the bird's feet and pull hard very quickly. The spinal chord is instantly severed and the bird instantly dies. It's the same as chopping its head off but with no blood or mess and the bird never even knows what happened. Just wanted to let you know in case you do decide to go the culling route.