illness that caused eyes to shut, wheezing and bubbles in corner of eyes? wht the heck?

[pdavin]

My friend (seriously, literally, not me ) Has a flock of barred rocks and Buckeyes. Last summer she added afew wellsummers that she got at a local chicken swap. With in a week one of the wellsummers died suddenly with no apparent symptoms and the next week her flock had 4 other birds come down with some illness. The eyes gooped over and shut first and there was a little wheezing. She isolated the sick ones and dosed them with an eye wash and antibiotics. They all recovered in about a week but there appears to be bubbles still in the corners of some of the chickens eyes. She is in a real quandry. She would like to increase her flock and has since built a new hen house. She does not know if she should cull all of the present flock, add birds to it or even if she should move any of these exposed birds to her new hen house. The flock is healthy and active at this time. Please help me help her! Thanks!

 

[BirdyMe]

Did she notice any other symptoms? A year and a half ago, I rescued a flock of 49 birds that I was told were in fine health....turned out they were almost practically neglected. I quarantined them of course, but when I let them out with the rest of the flock, everyone started getting sick. Bubbly, frothy eyes, wheezing, lethargic, and ruffled feathers. It would escalate to 'darth vader' breathing, darkened combs (from lack of oxygen), and most of the time death. I lost most of my flock that fall/winter. I found that the new birds I had introduced carried Mycoplasma Gallisepticum, which is a serious respiratory disease. I treated the flock with Tylan (Baytrill and Gallimycin will also work), but now my flock carries the disease, which means no showing/moving them off the property.

In order to be rid of Mycoplasma Gallisepticum, all birds must be destroyed and the coops/area where the chickens are must be free of birds for 3-4 weeks. Any M.G. living in the ground will die out during this time period. After all equipment is thoroughly cleaned, birds can be reintroduced. In order to know for sure if you have M.G., a blood test must be done.

You can google it for more info. It's a serious business....hoping it's not M.G.! Best of luck to your friend!