Hi folks
i'm feeling pretty discouraged at the moment with my first time chicken keeping. I wanted to share some lessons that we learned (the hard way) to prevent other first time chicken keepers from making the same mistakes.
Also, if anybody has advice, please let me know.
We got some pullets from a person on craigslist (first mistake).
We didn't know them well, thought they seemed fairly nice, and seemed to care a lot about their chickens. When we went over to their place, I had the instinct that it looked on the dirty side, but not having much experience with how dirty is scary, decided to get the chickens anyway. (second mistake).
The lady there was in a rush so she wasn't answering our questions well. We were also conscious of the amount of questions we were asking. We were making rash decisions without taking the time to examine the chickens closely and taking her word on the fact that they were a picture of health. (third mistake).
She did tell us that she also "rescues" chickens, so their flock was a mix of chickens bought from feed-stores, some hatched in their own space, and rescues. We didn't realize the dangers of communicable respiratory diseases between adult chickens that come from unknown sources, so we got 3 chickens from her (fourth mistake).
As soon as we brought the 3 chickens home, one of them started looking sick. she was sneezing a lot and holding her head down all the time. We didn't know how bad this was, so we kept her in the coop with the others (big mistake).
We didn't want to start a flock with a sick chicken so we returned her immediately. But not soon enough because one of our others started showing the same signs. She seemed to get better within a few days, so we decided not to worry.
But our initial intent was to get 4 chickens, so we ended up going to the feed store and getting 2 more two month olds. Brought them back, and boom, they started showing signs of respiratory issues. Constant sneezing that didn't look too bad at first. but now she's constantly blocked up and has a tremendous sinus infection. We tried all we can to nurse them back to health naturally. I don't use many antibiotics in my own body, so i really believed that we could try and help them heal naturally.
that did not work. Though we have one healthy chicken, the other 3 are a mess. We have taken them to montclair vet hospital (where apparently there is a chicken vet). Hundreds of dollars of money we can't afford, and they still don't know what's going on.
meanwhile, my research has pointed me to believe that is is CRD (chronic respiratory disease) caused by a mycoplasma bacteria. it is highly contagious and there is no cure. You can treat them with antibiotics, but they will be carriers forever, which means that we can't add any chickens to our flock unless we say goodbye to all remaining chickens. On the backyard chickens forum, folks have mentioned that no amount of disinfecting of the coop and starting over has helped.
So, now we have 3 sick chickens with this contagious disease + one healthy one who is probably going to be a carrier. One of our little chicks (who we thought was a hen) crowed last week, and so now we have a rooster at hand that no one will take because of the exposure to mycoplasma.
it is a messy situation.I consider myself to be one of good skills around being self sufficient but first time access to a yard where i can keep chickens got me excited and I rushed into it, which of course was the biggest mistake. Needless to say Im very discouraged, this has been a very painful process and we still don't have answers on what to do. I love them all but i'm on the verge of wanting to put them down and starting over. I don't want to raise chickens on antibiotics. And I cannot see them suffering without them.
I would encourage new chicken keepers to do a good amount of research before they keep chickens, and also to be VERY careful where they get their hens from.
Thank you, i hope this is somewhat useful. If somebody has any ideas on how to handle this mess, i'd greatly appreciate it.
Poonam
i'm feeling pretty discouraged at the moment with my first time chicken keeping. I wanted to share some lessons that we learned (the hard way) to prevent other first time chicken keepers from making the same mistakes.
Also, if anybody has advice, please let me know.
We got some pullets from a person on craigslist (first mistake).
We didn't know them well, thought they seemed fairly nice, and seemed to care a lot about their chickens. When we went over to their place, I had the instinct that it looked on the dirty side, but not having much experience with how dirty is scary, decided to get the chickens anyway. (second mistake).
The lady there was in a rush so she wasn't answering our questions well. We were also conscious of the amount of questions we were asking. We were making rash decisions without taking the time to examine the chickens closely and taking her word on the fact that they were a picture of health. (third mistake).
She did tell us that she also "rescues" chickens, so their flock was a mix of chickens bought from feed-stores, some hatched in their own space, and rescues. We didn't realize the dangers of communicable respiratory diseases between adult chickens that come from unknown sources, so we got 3 chickens from her (fourth mistake).
As soon as we brought the 3 chickens home, one of them started looking sick. she was sneezing a lot and holding her head down all the time. We didn't know how bad this was, so we kept her in the coop with the others (big mistake).
We didn't want to start a flock with a sick chicken so we returned her immediately. But not soon enough because one of our others started showing the same signs. She seemed to get better within a few days, so we decided not to worry.
But our initial intent was to get 4 chickens, so we ended up going to the feed store and getting 2 more two month olds. Brought them back, and boom, they started showing signs of respiratory issues. Constant sneezing that didn't look too bad at first. but now she's constantly blocked up and has a tremendous sinus infection. We tried all we can to nurse them back to health naturally. I don't use many antibiotics in my own body, so i really believed that we could try and help them heal naturally.
that did not work. Though we have one healthy chicken, the other 3 are a mess. We have taken them to montclair vet hospital (where apparently there is a chicken vet). Hundreds of dollars of money we can't afford, and they still don't know what's going on.
meanwhile, my research has pointed me to believe that is is CRD (chronic respiratory disease) caused by a mycoplasma bacteria. it is highly contagious and there is no cure. You can treat them with antibiotics, but they will be carriers forever, which means that we can't add any chickens to our flock unless we say goodbye to all remaining chickens. On the backyard chickens forum, folks have mentioned that no amount of disinfecting of the coop and starting over has helped.
So, now we have 3 sick chickens with this contagious disease + one healthy one who is probably going to be a carrier. One of our little chicks (who we thought was a hen) crowed last week, and so now we have a rooster at hand that no one will take because of the exposure to mycoplasma.
it is a messy situation.I consider myself to be one of good skills around being self sufficient but first time access to a yard where i can keep chickens got me excited and I rushed into it, which of course was the biggest mistake. Needless to say Im very discouraged, this has been a very painful process and we still don't have answers on what to do. I love them all but i'm on the verge of wanting to put them down and starting over. I don't want to raise chickens on antibiotics. And I cannot see them suffering without them.
I would encourage new chicken keepers to do a good amount of research before they keep chickens, and also to be VERY careful where they get their hens from.
Thank you, i hope this is somewhat useful. If somebody has any ideas on how to handle this mess, i'd greatly appreciate it.
Poonam
