hi,
I am concerned about a few chickens I swapped. I normally keep new chooks in quarantine -mostly to allow them to acclimate to the new home and to avoid them getting picked on. I traded 3 , and noticed hard thick bulb like bases to their feathers around the neck-I found out they had both mites and lice -that alone i can deal with. But once i snuggled with one I noticed a really bad smell coming from her head. it was then I noticed the whitish thick crusty film on the nostrils. I was able to express more bad smelling fluid from it. I am worried about IC. the chooks were in their own wire/wood cage, but most of ours are free range so many came to check out the new guys. they stayed there for about 24 hours, I have since sent them back to the owner asking her to watch them, and I know I dont want my others back ....I am a biologist, but not a microbiologist-so I cant do a gram stain and raise it in the specific medium, so other than changing clothes and bleaching the cages/area/bowls they were in I am unsure as what else to do.
I am aware that I can be prone to obsessive worring but i would hate to loose 20-50% and then not be able to take on/breed more w/o continuing the cycle. having read of treatment methods involving controlled exposure, how really contagious is it - on a scale of 1 touch you're dead to needing the equivalent of a horse sneeze to take effect?
I know that the bad smell is a result of infection- what else out there could also be suspect for this condition? they had appetites, but i don't have any idea how long they were in this condition. They were sneezing, but did not have the puffy eyes. earlier in the year I got two from her and they had none the above problems.
I am concerned about a few chickens I swapped. I normally keep new chooks in quarantine -mostly to allow them to acclimate to the new home and to avoid them getting picked on. I traded 3 , and noticed hard thick bulb like bases to their feathers around the neck-I found out they had both mites and lice -that alone i can deal with. But once i snuggled with one I noticed a really bad smell coming from her head. it was then I noticed the whitish thick crusty film on the nostrils. I was able to express more bad smelling fluid from it. I am worried about IC. the chooks were in their own wire/wood cage, but most of ours are free range so many came to check out the new guys. they stayed there for about 24 hours, I have since sent them back to the owner asking her to watch them, and I know I dont want my others back ....I am a biologist, but not a microbiologist-so I cant do a gram stain and raise it in the specific medium, so other than changing clothes and bleaching the cages/area/bowls they were in I am unsure as what else to do.
I am aware that I can be prone to obsessive worring but i would hate to loose 20-50% and then not be able to take on/breed more w/o continuing the cycle. having read of treatment methods involving controlled exposure, how really contagious is it - on a scale of 1 touch you're dead to needing the equivalent of a horse sneeze to take effect?
I know that the bad smell is a result of infection- what else out there could also be suspect for this condition? they had appetites, but i don't have any idea how long they were in this condition. They were sneezing, but did not have the puffy eyes. earlier in the year I got two from her and they had none the above problems.