Just got my girls and they're all sick! Help!

[Picky Chicky]

In all fairness to the seller, I didn't hear any of the 5 girls I picked out sneezing or coughing. They were quiet the entire way home with the occassional mumbling to one another. Once I got them into their new home (I had no chickens prior) the box they were in was covered in what looked like healthy poop?

Almost immediately they all decided to give me my first 'bad momma' heart attack - they started sneezing and occassionally coughing. My first thought was to panick, but my DH suggested it might be because of the fresh pine shavings litter I laid down for them.

They all immediately started eating and drinking water (which had some electorlites mixed in it) and went about their business.

This morning one of the girls (my Jap bantam) was looking like I do when I have the flu. Her feathers were ruffled, and the other one seemed to be giving her a pep talk. It was pitiful.

As a side note I noticed that their poop seems to look fine except for one of the girls (not my Jap)... her poo is coming out like soft serve chocolate ice cream.

Can anyone give me suggestions on what I can do to treat them all? I would hate to lose one so early in my chicken raisen hobby days.

Thanks everyone for the help!

 

[BayCityBabe]

If they are getting settled in, I'd just keep an eye on them. If they are eating, life is good. Maybe give them some plain yogurt with their crumbles/pellets. What you really need to be on alert for is hard, raspy wheezing & puffy eyes. But, yeah, chickens do sneeze, just like we do.

 

[Picky Chicky]

Quote:
Whew... ok.. I'll keep an eye out on the little Jap bantam to make sure she's doing ok this evening.

I could hug you - you just took a major load off my new mommy shoulder.

They need a Dr. Spock's book for new chicken mommies. I feel kind've stupid now. hehe

 

[d.k]

* To start--same basics (sounds like you are doing them, but for others as well), isolate, keep warm, hydrate, electrolytes and vits, yogurt helps, too-- make sure they are drinking esp. and eating, note/post any/all symtoms, fever, etc.. Transport & travel is very stressfull for birds- some moreso than others. Hope it's just that for yours. . . .(sneezing during/after eating could be feed dust! The one with runny, 'chocolate' poo may have eaten to much green goodies.) If it keeps up past a day, or gets worse, post-- BTW, welcome to BYC! If I missed you before.

 

[LuvinMyPeeps]

Hi AVandrie,

I'm sorry this happened to you. :-( It's no fun worrying about your girls when you're a new mommy.

Are they chicks or young pullets?

My chickens have gone through the sneezing. They are 22 weeks now (I got them at 8 weeks and a week later they were sneezing.) I'm not sure if you can do this with chicks, but I put them on tetracyline and after about 2 days the sneezing and wheezing was gone. I did it for the whole flock since 3 out of 7 also had raspy wheezing, I didn't want to take any chances. They are fine now, but my black cochin, Mrs. Puffs, seems to be the sneezer. It's wierd. She's kind of my guage for the rest of the flock I guess. I've had this happen twice since then, it seems after a rain they always end up sneezing. Other than that, there was no discharge or runny noses and all were acting normally, and eating, pooping, preening, etc. normally. I don't want to use too much antibiotics, but I heard that stopping it too early can actually be worse than doing the full course because the strain can become resistant if they aren't all killed off (the bacteria strain, not the chickens LOL).

Try to hang in there...let me know how they're doing

 

[chicksinthemachine]

Quote:
Whew... ok.. I'll keep an eye out on the little Jap bantam to make sure she's doing ok this evening.

I could hug you - you just took a major load off my new mommy shoulder.

They need a Dr. Spock's book for new chicken mommies. I feel kind've stupid now. hehe

Don't feel stupid there are no stupid questions on here but there is a lot of information. Do a lot of searches and yes ask a lot of questions that is how most of us learned how to raise ours. Good Luck new momma you are getting off to a great start already.

 

[patandchickens]

Just a quick note on the poo -- be aware that chickens have two kinds of poo, the regular kind and cecal poo which is much runnier, sort of like melted chocolate type of thing. Is it possible that's what you saw?

Good luck,

Pat

 

[Picky Chicky]

Quote:
The regular kind of poo were harder droppings with the white topping to them (wow, this is gross)... and the runny poo I kept forgetting to see what it looked like when it dried, but Angel's poo was definitely runnier - just like the melted chocolate. Do I need to be really concerned about that? If so, what to do? She seems fine other than her runny poo - she's eating, and drinking.

 

[chicksinthemachine]

If they free range or you've changed their feed from the previous owner this kind of poo is normal. It becomes abnormal when blood is involved which doesn't sound like what is going on with your girls. Also stress from rehousing can cause different poo.