Infectious Bronchitis and new pullets

[Steel15]

Hi everyone.

This is my first post on the forum and I'm hoping some of you knowledgeable people can help me out with a question.

I live in the UK and my small flock of chickens is getting over infectious bronchitis. Of the five, I lost one chicken to complications with peritonitis a week ago (had been very sick for three weeks) and another is outside, still with the peritonitis but eating and pooping ok. A third is in my bathroom and is looking like it is following the pattern of the illness which killed the other one. She is very weak and lethargic and I believe I will have to cull her soon.

All have been to the vet (country/farming vet practice and he has kept and bred chickens for 40 years so I trust him), three have had antibiotics for secondary infections and it seems that the smallest of my chickens - the two little 2-year old black rocks - were the ones to be hit most badly with it. The one that still with the peritonitis is a big light sussex and her abdomen is going down very slowly as the days go by. Her appetite, which was poor a few weeks ago, is now almost back to normal as I was mugged by her for her grain ration yesterday afternoon

. She has lost some condition, but she was such a big girl overall she seems to have (fingers crossed) coped with it better than the black rocks.

So as it stands I have a 5-year old healthy ex-battery dominant hen who didn't get sick and doesn't lay much any more, one big healthy 2-year old light sussex who didn't get sick and lays every day, and one smaller 2-year old light sussex who did get sick and may or may not come back on the lay depending on if the IB hasn't damaged her reproductive organs.

Are the remaining chickens now carriers and the flock should be closed to newcomers, or was it just a one off and everything will be ok.

Any advice?

 

[Kikiriki]

First I'm sorry no one answered your first post...that kind of stinks.

Second, I'm sorry some other person didn't answer your post, because I am a newbie with no answers!

I have a link that might help you...don't know, but it's the best I can do! Good luck, and welcome to BYC (even though I bet you are not feeling so welcomed )


Chicken illness links

Excellent descriptions and symptom chart at the end:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

Common stuff, good article
http://www.motherearthnews.com/sustainable-farming/chicken-diseases-and-treatment-zmaz74zhol.aspx

 

[Suzierd]

From what I have read about IB chickens may remain carriers and shed the virus for several weeks. To be sure it's IB they should be tested. Sorry your dealing with this. Hopefully someone else will give some good advice. Good luck.
You may want to read this thread
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/69444/sick-dying-chicks-update-8-7-pics-pg-19

 

[Erica]

Hi Steel15,

I've had a flock with IB, so I'll try to help if I can. However I never saw it result in peritonitis, so presuming you had your flock tested and officially found to have IB, it sounds like you have a fairly pathogenic case.

In my experience IB was a very fast-progressing disease that went through the whole flock in about 2 weeks, sounded absolutely terrible (rattles, rales, gurgles, mucus all over the shop) but aside from wrinkly shells in pullets and watery whites in older birds it was no great drama. Maybe that was a low-pathogenicity strain; also my birds weren't carrying other illnesses like mycoplasma gallisepticum (the dreaded CRD germ), so they recovered quickly.

Unfortunately, yes it does produce carriers, and it's likely any new birds you bring in will get the disease. You may also find the birds that don't have it succumb later on (it can appear at various times in a flock containing carriers). I saw it reappear variously over 2 years, and I had great trouble getting pullets to lay without them developing symptoms (and unfortunately ruining their shell system in the process), so in the end I sadly culled and began again with new birds. I could probably have started vaccinating chicks to beat it that way, but I felt the most likely source of contagion in the first place was a vaccinated pullet (to my reading they could shed live virus -- I don't know if that's true but it was a concern for me at the time) so I culled.

It's totally your decision what to do, but for me a closed flock would be a must, and I'd try to keep all wild birds away as I seem to remember reading they could spread it. Especially keep your birds away from younger pullets.

I'm no expert, so read around. Sorry I can't help much.

best of luck
Erica

 

[Nicole01]

I treated mine with amoxicillian, probios and poly vi sol vitamins without iron. The worst hens, I'd put 2 drops of vitamins down the beak twice a day. I also put 1ml vitamins in their water changing that daily. The antibiotics and probiotics was mixed in wet mash.

My nearly dead chicks all survived, but they are all carriers. They acquired this illness from one chick knocking over the waterer at night and getting chilled. They are just over a year old and doing well.

Good luck!

I'm pretty sure the vitamins helped the best! Poly vi sol is a miracle when it comes to sick chicks.