little help--sneezing and shrill noise made by 4 1/2 mon. hen. Just finished 5 days of sulmet.

[BR or bust]

Hello, we kept two undersized cross bread meat birds that are now 4 1/2 mon. old. The hen has had an ongoing problem with rank, stinking runny lite brown poop for which I just treated with sulmet for 5 days. It has been wet and cold here in southern Oregon kinda suddenly and last week she began to sneeze a little. Today she is sneezing a lot more and in addition is making a shrill whisling type of noise. I have a cross breed rooster that besides being a glutonus pig shows no sign of illness. I am worried about the two buff orpintons we just put in with them last week getting the same thing but as of now they do not show any signes of sickness other than one poops an odd runny, jet black poop and does not lay eggs.
Any ideas, I keep looking in the forum but can't seem to find a definate answer.
thanks for your interest BR or bust

ps -- I rigged up a heat lamp for the coop and set it up on a timer from 10 pm to 7 am.

 

[CMV]

Well, I have a pretty low health standard when it relates to CornishX. That is the meat bird's breed, right?

 

[BR or bust]

great help--thanks for nothing but a smart *** answer. I was concerened about spreading the sicknes to my laying hens but that's ok.

 

[canesisters]

I'm no expert but I'd suggest that if you have any way to separate the healthy birds from the sick ones, that would be the first thing to do.

It might be helpful to take a sample of the poo to a local vet. Most will examine it for worms for under $10. At least you could either rule out worms or know exactly which ones you are dealing with.

What sort of mix breeds are they? I've heard that cornish mixes often have short lives because they were bred exclusively for gaining weight as fast as possible and processing early. There is a lot of very good help on here, but sometimes you just have to be patient and wait for folks to see your post. Use the time to do searches and see if you can find a thread where someone has dealt with similar symptoms - and what their outcome was.

Best of luck with your birds.

 

[dawg53]

Most likely you're dealing with some type of respiratory problem with the sneezing and shrill/whistling. Sulmet doesnt treat respiratory issues, except coryza. I think you were possibly treating for cocci due to the foul smelling poop. That type of poop you are seeing and smelling is called cecal poop. It is normal for a bird to deposit cecal poop about every 8 droppings or so. If it's continuous, then yes, there might be a problem. If this is the case, I'd take a look at what you are feeding her first, then go from there. If it's a respiratory problem and you want to treat, consider using tylan 50. Otherwise I recommend that you cull the sick bird.

 

[CMV]

Actually, I wasn't being a smart ***. If you have any experience whatsoever with CXs you will know that they are prone to major health issues...the fatal kind, generally. What I would normally guess as a respiratory infection in a layer, I would guess pulmonary edema in a CX.

As far as separating sick birds...it's kind of like closing the barn door after the horse has already gotten out.

Good luck.