Infection in the Coop

[Badhairdo980]

Good evening to all,

I went to the coop and noticed my chickens were all sick...!!! They are sneezing, gurgling, some have their one eye closed with foam coming out of it and I even found some blood on the ground...that is not good!!! We started giving them antibiotics (Tetracyclines) right away and I will disinfect the coop tomorrow. I don't want to loose my birds...they are mostly new chickens from this year. Two weeks ago I heard one Cochin sneezing. I did not worry too much as I thought it was due to the dust...but two others started with the same symptoms and now 30 out of 38 are not well. All the chickens were fine before we picked up five adults hens from a different farm. Any ideas what it could be???

 

[Pyxis]

That is a respiratory disease, most likely caused by mycoplasma. Does the discharge have a foul smell? If so it is coryza and not mycoplasma. The new hens were carriers, and the stress of the move caused them to display symptoms too if they are showing them. Mycoplasma and coryza are diseases that birds carry for life and will never be rid of. You can treat the symptoms now but whenever they are stressed, like during a molt, starting to lay for the first time, etc, they will get sick again. They will spread it to any bird they ever come into contact with and in the case of mycoplasma, the disease will even pass through the egg to the chicks and chicks will hatch infected with the disease. Hatching rates will also be low for this reason. If you want to keep your birds, you will need to keep a closed flock - you can never sell or give any of your birds away or any of their eggs for hatching or you will be spreading the disease. Any new birds you bring in will be infected with the illness. If this is fine with you, for mycoplasma I recommend treating with Denagard. It is technically a medicine for pigs but it can used on chickens and mycoplasma has no resistance to it so it clears up their symptoms quickly. You could also keep going with tetracycline as that is also a treatment option. You can also use Tylan. For coryza (if the discharge has a bad smell almost like roadkill) treat with Sulmet.

If you don't want to deal with these things and have sick birds, culling is the best option. Bleach down everything after and leave the coop empty for at least a month, because mycoplasma can survive at least that long in chicken poop. And if you have other types of birds, keep them AWAY from these chickens because they can get it too. That's another thing you have to consider - if you have other birds, can you keep them away from an infected chicken flock forever? If the answer is no, you have to consider culling.

And if you do cull, please be sure to always quarantine new birds in the future to avoid this situation happening again. It's not fun - it happened to me once, and I have no clue where the disease came from. I didn't even introduce new birds. So quarantine is very important and should always be done.

 

[Badhairdo980]

One dead hen this morning...

Phoned the vet and I have to continue giving them Tetracyclines for two weeks and clean the coop.

 

[chicken pickin]

That is a respiratory disease, most likely caused by mycoplasma. Does the discharge have a foul smell? If so it is coryza and not mycoplasma. The new hens were carriers, and the stress of the move caused them to display symptoms too if they are showing them. Mycoplasma and coryza are diseases that birds carry for life and will never be rid of. You can treat the symptoms now but whenever they are stressed, like during a molt, starting to lay for the first time, etc, they will get sick again. They will spread it to any bird they ever come into contact with and in the case of mycoplasma, the disease will even pass through the egg to the chicks and chicks will hatch infected with the disease. Hatching rates will also be low for this reason. If you want to keep your birds, you will need to keep a closed flock - you can never sell or give any of your birds away or any of their eggs for hatching or you will be spreading the disease. Any new birds you bring in will be infected with the illness. If this is fine with you, for mycoplasma I recommend treating with Denagard. It is technically a medicine for pigs but it can used on chickens and mycoplasma has no resistance to it so it clears up their symptoms quickly. You could also keep going with tetracycline as that is also a treatment option. You can also use Tylan. For coryza (if the discharge has a bad smell almost like roadkill) treat with Sulmet.

If you don't want to deal with these things and have sick birds, culling is the best option. Bleach down everything after and leave the coop empty for at least a month, because mycoplasma can survive at least that long in chicken poop. And if you have other types of birds, keep them AWAY from these chickens because they can get it too. That's another thing you have to consider - if you have other birds, can you keep them away from an infected chicken flock forever? If the answer is no, you have to consider culling.

And if you do cull, please be sure to always quarantine new birds in the future to avoid this situation happening again. It's not fun - it happened to me once, and I have no clue where the disease came from. I didn't even introduce new birds. So quarantine is very important and should always be done.

This is great information and also great advise.

My personal thought on this is always to cull, disinfect completely, wait the recommended time and start over. Then be very very careful when bringing in new stock , always quarantine and read up on biosecurity to keep your flock safe.

Of course what works for some doesn't work for others.

I wish you luck during this tough time.