Leave it alone!

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I have to respectfully disagree that cold weather will cause those symptoms. I often put 2 week old chicks in a grow out coop before spring, with temps in the 20's outside. I have never had those symptoms, ever. If it is just too cold for chicks, they simply die, not show snotty noses and sticky eyes, IMO. I am certainly not a vet, but it sounds like they contracted CRD or the like.
I hate to always be the bucket of cold water here, I really do. I just cant see those symptoms being caused by cold.
 
thanks!!! im waiting on my little helper to get home at 3 and then off we go to freeze our tails off to keep those fuzzy butts warm and healthy!! its like 30 degrees right now, 20 with the windchill factor! the things i do for these poor chickies. You know I do have a nice heated coop, but I have 26 healthy ones in there and Id put the sickies in there, but i dont want to risk infecting the healthy ones!! errrr! I guess I cant avoid the cold forever.....did i mention its really windy?
 
I've given as much as 1cc IM tylan50 (in the muscle) with no muscle injury, never more in one site, sometimes 1/2 IM and 1/2 SQ (under skin) if I have someone else to hold the bird - which is what they BYC dosage page suggests.

I did the first two birds I ever dosed every day but got similar results with the one I did do every other day.

The first one had MG from bad bad handling - transported in the drafts and rain in an open cage...

The last batch all got sick after I didn't realize the waterer had been leaking into the coop litter. I only treated two of them, the two sickest, the others recovered without help. It would have been better if it'd been spring or summer and more of the coop were open but with the horrid winter, my coop is enclosed in additional plastic to hold heat. No luck, at least it passed in about six days. I dug out all the affected litter, let the area dry and replaced the litter in that area completely.

Good luck.
 
GREAT! whats CRD? How do you treat that? Can I just use antibiotics like I have been? I put vitamins and electrolytes in their water too. I havent brought home any new birds recently (except for like 3 days ago-but they were sick long before that and havent even been remotely close to each other). It make more sense, IMO (but im not familiar with it), if they had been exposed to outside birds, but they havent???!! HMMMMM.....i dont know! i just hope the heat helps and isnt too much of a fire hazard, as i cant monitor all the time.
 
Quote:
thanks! whats MG? My coop doesnt get aired out too much, like it should because of how cold its been and the snow weve been getting. Ive been keeping it shut up tight to hold in the heat, its actually not that cold in there, not that i think about it. No noticable drafts or anything. So i guess its not the cold thats doing it, idk. I am so darn lazy in the cold, its ridiculous. Ill try and rake it out today (even tho it doesnt appear to be dirty) and see if I cant afford to buy some shavings to put down (I have already been to TSC everyday this week sometimes twice a day and many days last week lol...im broke).
 
Ok, I'll try this again because I'm not sure I'm being clear enough. Chickens do not get colds. All these diseases cannot be treated with antibiotics, at least the viruses. Some can be passed down to chicks in the egg, so they hatch with it. Many of these are HERPES viruses. Think AIDS. They cannot be cured, only the symptoms managed. Antibiotics will do nothing except keep bacterial infections under control. You can google these diseases--there are numerous articles online about them.

Many chicken keepers have the same policy as we do here. The only treatment for any respiratory illness is to cull, and I mean euthanize the birds.

Here are some articles on poultry diseases. Note that many say there is no cure.

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/PS044
http://www.shagbarkbantams.com/ib.htm
http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/cps/rde/dpi/hs.xsl/27_2735_ENA_HTML.htm
 
Quote:
I have to agree 100% with Speckledhen.

Unless you know what disease your chicks have come down with it is not wise to treat with antibiotics. Sometimes it is best to cull.
 
Kryp, CRD is Chronic Respiratory Disease and MG is Mycoplasma Gallisepticum.

Did you get rid of the straw you had them bedded on? I suspect part of your issue may be not enough ventilation. 20 or 30 degrees is not that cold for a chicken; heck, when I went to the barn this a.m. it was -3! BEFORE wind chill. And I've got pullets younger than yours out there, and have not had an issue.

You need to make sure they are DRY DRY DRY! THAT is the key with respiratory stuff. If you lock your coop up so tightly that there is no ventilation, the heat from them breathing, and pooping, will make moisture in the air. Then, couple that with straw or hay bedding, which is not very absorbent and harbors bacteria in the shafts, and you're all set up for a major respo. issue.

Also, you shouldn't be using electrolytes along with antibiotics.

Hang in there...
hugs.gif
 
thanks for the info....speckledhen, i now realize that chickens cant get colds, but what i really meant anyways was a respitory infection. Ive seen lots of people on here that said their chickens have a respitory infection and use tylan-50 to treat it. also why shouldnt i use electrolytes with antibiotics? does it cancel it out? i will do what you guys say and air out the coop and get some shavings, take out the hay, and put up a heat lamp and report back. thanks again for all the help!!
 

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