Infectious Bronchitis?????? PLEASE HELP!!! ***Updated with Pics***

[mags2009]

Yesterday, I posted about a weird egg that we got. It was lighter in color, and had a window, in it if you will, that had a real thin part over it, and when you turned the egg, inside the "window" looked like air bubbles, in a honeycomb pattern, and the circle around the window was wrinkled. Then the other egg we got, had calcifications on it, like pimples. Those two we know were from our two white rocks. The third egg yesterday was from our red star and that was fine. Today we got the red star's egg, which looked normal, and one of the white rocks, that has more calcifications on it than yesterday. I am VERY worried that this may be infectious bronchitis, as I have heard some sneezing, but no one as of yet has any discharge from their eyes, or anything. I had noticed some watery poop a couple of days ago though. Also, they have only been laying for two weeks as of yesterday, but always had perfect-looking eggs except for day 2, when we had one shell-less egg.
Do you think I have Infectious Bronchitis in my flock?
Will they survive it if we do?
Can this disease harm us?????
Should we NOT eat any of their eggs, in case they have this?
What should we do?????

PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!

 

[rhoda_bruce]

about the extra calcium places on the eggs; I consider that normal for yard fresh eggs. I always have had that. You won't find that in a supermarket, but in a spaceous yard....thats another story. Now if they are acting like chickens and seem happy, but have sneezed.....good. I would worry, when they become very slow and seem chilled and hardly move even when you show up with a bucket. However, if you are worried that they may be infected, you can call you ag supply store and see if they have any antibiotics in stock and get it. If they don't, you can get with a mail order hatcheries site. They all have meds. You can get something that you can just mix in their water for a certain period of time.
Now this is just a precaution. If you are really serious about keeping them healthy.....and I might as well admit that I'm a firm believer in this.......go ahead and spend whatever you are willing on vaccines. You will want to do the antibiotics first and wait a few days to make sure all is well and you have some healthy birds first. Vaccines won't help chickens that are already symptomatic.

 

[mags2009]

well, although the girl that layed the "weird" egg yesterday, hasn't laid yet for today, ALL of my girls come running when they see my coming down the path, none have any eye or nose discharge as of yet, and they are foraging in their run and the remains of our garden, so hopefully I am just being "overly" cautious??? But here are my remaining questions:

Does everyone think this is just from "new" layers???

Also, do you think its strange that my others haven't started to lay yet???? They are almost 24 weeks, and I only have 3/7 laying. The others do the squat, and are very red with wattles and combs and faces. Please advise!!!!!

 

[gumpsgirl]

I'm not seeing any reason to get upset at this point. If your chickens were sneezing over and over, their nares were crusty, and they sounded wheezy, then you would have reason to be alarmed. A sneeze here and there is nothing to get upset over. Chickens do that! They scratch right there on the ground where dust can get into their nares and they get water up in their nares when they drink (at least mine do every once in awhile), so some sneezing is to be expected. It's the excessive sneezing that should catch your attention.

The eggs that go with IB are most generally wrinkled and shaped strange. That's what you need to look for. Extra calcium deposits can be normal as long as thin shelled egg here and there. It's all part of the chicken egg laying process and goes with the territory.

 

[mrsgibber]

I had chickens (briefly) with ILT. I've never heard of strange eggs being a symptom. When mine had ILT they were listless, swollen runny sort of eyes, and were sneezing & coughing (plus coughing up blood). The coughing was very strange and a sure sign it was ILT.

My chickens now are all healthy (knock on wood) but do sneeze occasionally. Sometimes they just get something up their nose. If you aren't seeing any other symptoms I wouldn't be worried. Just keep a close eye.

If you continue to be concerned I suggest calling Peter, the chicken doctor at www.firststatevetsupply.com He was a huge help to me when I dealt with it. .

Good luck!

 

[mags2009]

Quote:
Here are some pics of the "weird" egg and the calcium egg:

What do you think of the first egg???? It has wrinkles in aroud the "window" part of it!!! It's hard to see, but inside the "window" is a honeycomb-like pattern that moves around- as I said before in an earlier post,,, its just like a magic 8 ball, if you know what that is.

Please advise again.....

 

[gumpsgirl]

It's weird all right, but weird eggs happen sometimes! The second egg looks totally normal to me. I get those every so often.

I am trying to find some pics of eggs that came from chickens with IB.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
I agree. That first egg is a little strange looking, but strange eggs happen from time to time. The second egg looks normal, maybe a bit of excess calcium on the shell is all.

 

[gumpsgirl]

I FINALLY found the thread that I was looking for!

This member battled IB last year and shows a pic of her eggs she was getting. I also thought the whole thread would be of some value to you. Happy reading!

 

[mags2009]

Quote:
Actually, I saw this thread and that's what made me MORE nervous. Although my egg wasn't AS wrinkly, it does have wrinkles. I am going to go out and see if she has laid today. Usually she lays before 1:00, but as of 2:30, nothing. I will let you all know....