introducing new chickens to a flock.

[schellie69]

PLEASE WHEN GETTING NEW CHICKENS (OTHER THEN DAY OLD'S) PLEASE QUARANTINE FOR 30 DAYS.
Sorry but please do not put new birds directly into your flocks. This is how illness starts
Place new birds in another area take care of your old birds first then new birds never wear the same clothes and shoes into your flocks pens that you wore around the new birds.

 

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well ive already had my chickens together for two weeks. and they had been given all their injections before i bought them but we do suspect that one of the new ones was a carrier of a respiritory infection and passed it onto the other new one and one of our older birds but as soon as we discovered it we took our eldest mildred (who was suffering the most) to the vets and he gave us something to put in the water, but when we bought the chickens the man who sold them just told us to separate them in the run for the day and them let them follow the others into the coup.

 

[schellie69]

With chickens they do not get colds the respiratory infections they get make them carriers for life which means that if you bring any new birds in or sell any that they could become sick or make other chickens sick. Do a search for respiratory illnesses in chickens there is a member who is going through making the choice of closing her flock or culling her entire flock due to a respiratory illness. Since most of these are virus antibiotics will not help. This is why a lot of people never bring in starter birds. Please be careful.


If you had quarantine the new birds your older bird would never have gotten sick this is why you always quarantine new birds for 30 days.
Here is the member going through this there is a lot of great information on this thread.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=6290493#p6290493

 

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thanks for the info. wish i had known this 2 weeks ago. luckily they are all pulling through now. the one we thought was the carrier got a puffy eye a few days after we introduced them. we took her to the vets and he said to give antibiotics and that she would be fine, the thing is were not sure if this is a result of pecking or to do with the infection the others had. these are the symptoms the bird that first showed signs of the infection had, day one she was slightly withdrawn from the other 3 and didnt eat as much as usual, started coughing/sneezing later on that day (but very infreqently) then day 2 her breathing sounded odd, it was simalar to the sound made when blowing through a straw into water and then whenever she she sneezed it stopped for a while, we withdrew her from the other chickens and gave her antibiotics and shes more or less ok now, shes not quite up to full strengh and not laying regularly ( she layed yesterday but not today) though she seems happy enough.

 

[schellie69]

I would keep an eye out for the others. I would be worried with any kind of respiratory problem. I am always worried about bringing a respiratory problem into the flock. I would think a vet would know that in case like this to do some kind of test first. I just don't like using antibiotics without knowing what the problem is. It seems like setting an arm when you broke your leg kind of thing or that is how I look at it. Make sure that any new birds your bring in make sure to quarantine for 30 days and if there are times of stress what the one that got sick if she is a carrier then these symptoms will come up again then you have to make the choice of keeping her or culling her from the flock.

My rule is if they have a respiratory infection I cull but that is just me.

 

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ill keep an eye on them just to be sure theyre ok, but they all seem fine this morning

 

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Quote:
well our vet does have chickens himself but has admitted to not being very experienced with chicken illnesses