IB? too subtle for me to figure out--First time flock owner

ThunderMama

Hatching
6 Years
May 23, 2013
6
0
9
I am, as you'll see by my description here, a total newbie. My main concern here is egg production, as the chickens look healthy and active regardless of what may have hit them.

I'm trying to figure out if our chickens had a run of IB. I've read the threads, and I've researched online, but IF my chickens do have IB, it's so subtle I can't figure it out. The timeline doesn't help, as you'll see, because I made so many mistakes, that it's hard to know WHAT could be interfering with their laying.

Timeline:
Three weeks ago: Brought home 7 new hens from a local seller. Did not quarantine. (I know... BIG mistake. I didn't know enough. I'll never do that again, if just to avoid this worry. ) At the time, all I had was two adult roosters and seven 3 month old chickens, so ALL of the laying hens came from the same place at the same time, but still-- if they had IB from the previous owner's flock and brought it to my babies... well.. that sucks.
For the first week, the 7 adult hens were giving us 5-6 eggs a day.

Two weeks ago: Dog got in the chicken pen and killed one of our roosters, and one of our laying hens died at the same time, though she looked un harmed. Maybe heart attack? We caught her pretty quickly, so all the other chickens had just taken cover under or in a henhouse and escaped unharmed.

Around the same time: One of our young chickens was breathing heavy one night, and then was dead the next morning. It was very sudden. After that, about half the flock was showing signs of being sick. They all acted pretty normal, but were sneezy and some were wheezy. Only two really showed the wheezing badly-- one young one, and one laying hen.
**Egg production suddenly dropped from 5-6 a day, to 2-3 a day.


I treated the entire flock with tetracyclin in their water for the 6 days (threw out all eggs for two weeks from the start of treatment time), and all of the chickens seemed fine. within a few days.

So I'm naturally concerned that perhaps what went through my flock was IB. We have NOT had the classic funky wrinkled/lumpy egg. Occasionally one of the eggs will look like it has a faint wrinkle in the shell. Is that normal? They are all a normal shape, though occasionally they'll vary and look like a torpedo, or may be significantly smaller than the rest. But for the most part, the eggs that I DO get look pretty normal.
My laying hens (6 of them) are all around a year old, give or take 2-3 months, so I know weird things can happen with their laying patterns.
Since I'm so new at this, I can't tell what's normal.

Other things I've noticed:
--Laying hens are missing/have broken feathers on their lower back, and some at the base of their wings. Originally I thought they were molting at a weird time, but I realized it's probably my big ol' roo. The babies are not missing any feathers, so I'm thinking I can safely assume the feather loss and egg production drop isn't due to any sort of pest, or the babies and rooster would be missing feathers too, correct?

--Two of the hens are very anti-social. They roam the yard and peck around albeit on their own, but whereas all of the hens and rooster and babies all hole up at night in the large henhouse, my laced wyandotte and white leghorn each go by themselves in the other two small henhouses and roost for the night. I think my leghorn is one that's not laying, because I see no white eggs lately. My wyandotte has lots of the broken/missing feather evidence, but my leghorn seems to have NONE of it. Her feathers look pristine. (Is that weird, considering I've got a big, active rooster?) The last egg I remember her laying was a shell-less egg. that is the only shell-less or even soft-shelled egg I've seen so far.

--Lastly, this morning I noticed that though they all are breathing fine, there is still the occasional sneeze, and I see evidence of nasal secretions on quite a few of them. HOWEVER, I did just replace all the bedding in the coop the other day (pine), and it kicks up some pretty good dust when I clean out and refresh the coop bedding. AND, it's been very rainy for the past two-three weeks. The chickens have had a heat lamp through it all, though, if that matters...

Anyone experienced enough to know if this sounds like IB hit my flock? I don't want to sacrifice one of my chickens for testing, unless it's likely that's what is going on.
 
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It's possible it could be IB that you're dealing with. However, wrinkled eggs and watery whites are a sure sign of the virus. You could also possibly be dealing with a mild strain of MG. It would be best to get bloodwork or necropsy done on your sickest bird to determine what you're dealing with. You can contact your local extension office or state department of agriculture to find out how to go about doing this.
 
its really hard to say exactly what was going through the flock. i doubt it was IB because IB can not be cured with antibotic according to my chicken health book. because your chickens responded well to the antibiotic you have given them its very likely it was not IB. classic symptoms of infectious bronchitis is gasping coughing sneezing rattling of breathing wet eyes nasal discharge huddling near heat loss of appetite swollen sinuses swollen waddles sharp drop in laying near zero eggs with soft thin mid sharpen rough or rigid wrinkled shells and watery egg whites.survivors are immune after illness but become carriers. but according to the chicken health book IB will not respond to antibiotics. antibiotics can be given to prevent a SECONDARY infection of the air sac however IB its self can't be treated with antibiotics. so I'm unsure of what exactly was going through the flock but since it responded to the antibiotic it very likely was not IB. hope this helps some And I Wish You The Best.
 
Thanks to both of you. I sure hope it wasn't IB. I'm not sure about watery whites because we haven't eaten the eggs, since they were on antibiotics. I suppose I should crack one open and take a look.

Does anyone know how long IB tends to last? Meaning, can I be pretty sure that it was the antibiotics they responded to, and not just luck that it ran its course?

We have the University of Utah close by, I'll check with their ag dept. and see if we can get a chicken tested without sacrificing her! That'd be a bummer if we did that only to find out that it's NOT IB....

and if it IS.... ohhhhhhh... we've put so. much. work. into raising the young ones. The adult hens, though I like them alot, I'm not nearly as attached to as I am the beauuuuuutiful sweet young ones we've raised since they were a few days old!
 
Well, that's good news, as aside from an occasional sneeze and a few runny noses, they only showed real signs of sickness for a few days. This is helping me hope!

Now.. the question remains... why the drop in eggs?... They don't *appear* to be molting, plagued by pests, they have oyster shell mixed in with their laying pellets---
am I feeding them too much kitchen scrap? I don't give them crap, I only feed them veggie/fruit scraps, occasional leftover pasta/bread, and the occasional bean or organic chicken breast.
 
Well, that's good news, as aside from an occasional sneeze and a few runny noses, they only showed real signs of sickness for a few days. This is helping me hope!

Now.. the question remains... why the drop in eggs?... They don't *appear* to be molting, plagued by pests, they have oyster shell mixed in with their laying pellets---
am I feeding them too much kitchen scrap? I don't give them crap, I only feed them veggie/fruit scraps, occasional leftover pasta/bread, and the occasional bean or organic chicken breast.
Birds will recover from IB but will never get over the disease. Stress can cause symptoms to reappear. Egg production will slowly return. Here's a link for you, scroll down to Infectious Bronchitis:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044
 
I know, that's why I'm so concerned. Otherwise, I wouldn't really worry about it-- chickens will lay when they lay. But since I know that IF they have IB, they'll always be carriers, I've been trying to figure it out.

After hearing what some have to say on here, it sounds like it's less likely that it's IB than some other chicken-"cold". nobody seemed too sick, and nobody was sick for too long (aside from the one young chicken who seemed to start wheezing and drop dead in less than 24 hrs). I'm waiting to hear back from UVU about testing regardless, so that I know whether or not I need to take ULTRA safety precautions in exposing my chickens to other chickens. Many of my friends and neighbors have chickens, and if mine have IB,I don't want to expose others.
 

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