Hi all, Hopefully I can gain some advice on my worries with my six newly aquired pullets which are between 17 and 19 weeks old. I'll start at the begining. Two weeks ago we bought the girls. We wanted 6 very different looking chickens and ended up getting two chickens from each of three various places. yep I know, stupid and hindsight is a great thing, but being totally new to caring for chickens this is something they never told you not to do in all the books To cut a long story short one of the places we have since discovered has been selling chickens to people which have then gone on to develop Mycroplasma (i'm in the UK not sure if this is what everyone calls it or if this is the correct term) The two that we got from this place are the youngest of our six and one of them seems a bit weaker and more chilled out. I posted on here last week about her "yawning" she also had a day or two of sneezing but otherwise seems ok and eats very well. Since then the other chickens take it in turns on a day to day basis to have a full day of coughing, sneezing, making odd cat like noises instead of the usual chicken clucking noise and on occasion I have noticed a small amount of clear water coming out of their noses. I have been told that if they have this Mycroplasma they will have the white sweet smelling discharge from their nose and eyes and swollen eyes, so far this hasnt happened. Just coughing and sneezing for a day at a time then make a miraculous recovery over night. Then to make matters worse, yesterday when cleaning out the coop (which was bought brand new two weeks ago and has been cleaned out every other day) around 6 or 7 red mite and possible lice. So today I spent the day using Jeyes fluid to scrub and disinfect, then poultry shield sprayed onto the whole house and then this evening hanging the chickens upside down and dusting all over with diatom, and diatom on the perches and bedding. Then when I thought I may be winning this battle one of my pullets from the dodgy seller passed a worm in the poo so I have started giving then Flubenvet. How unlucky have these poor chickens been??? Now my question is what can I do to help them recover, to try and perk them up and prevent any more poor health. I am very concerned over this coughing thing, there is little point in isolating the two which started it all as they have all been together two weeks now and are all displaying symptoms. I have added a clove of garlic to their water and I feed them lost of yummy treats in the afternoon. We had one egg from our goldline two days after we got her but that was 12 days ago and nothing since, maybe this is to do with their health as opposed to them getting into a pattern as previously suggested????? Any advice would be gratefully recieved as I am so inexperienced I really have no idea what I am dealing with here. Thanks
I am sorry for the mess you and your darling chicks are in. Sometimes I am surprised the things books do not mention - like quarantine. I have no experience treating an illness of this sort - but I do recommend you search this site and read, read, read. The best search (in case you did not know) is to use the BYC Search link (located in the upper blue bar - just above your logged in name) - not the google search box on the right. The BYC search will allow you to do a word search in title or message body, and search threads and even by author. To help boost them, I would boil some eggs then chop them up (with the shell) and offer to them. You could also offer them some salmon, yogurt mixed with their high protein crumbles. for you and your chicks. Good luck on this adventure.
Thankyou I shall do just that. I am ever so worried about the possibility of losing one or all of the girls I have become so attached already I am desperate to make them all better again and see their lovely eggs. I will boil them some eggs tomorrow and see how we go
I have a link to a awesome article included in this post by threehorses. It is on treating respiratory illnesses in chickens. I used the supplemental/ nutritional recommendations listed and ended up not having to medicate. I should let you know though, that your girls will always be carriers of this even if they get better. Poor babies. Try everything She recommends. Worked like a charm for me! And all of the suggestions are just great for boosting their immune systems in general. Good luck! Here's the link: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=2788452
ok thankyou, I will check it out now. Does this mean that if they are carriers I will not be able to add more pullets if I lose any to maintain the size of my small flock (six). Presumably if I do add new pullets they will become ill too?
That's pretty much the idea from what I've read, provided that it is mycroplasma. However, my understanding is that it usually doesn't kill them if you treat it well, and the only reason it is a problem would be that they may have flare ups from time to time. Apparently, many birds develope immunity. Some people choose to cull infected birds.....but I think that would only be necessary if you were planning on breeding or selling meat or eggs. I am not an expert by any means though! Just passing along what I've read.
