Losing birds!

[smith76]

I am losing chickens to what appears to be a respiratory disease. The birds are coughing sneezing and the eyes are crusty and appear to be bubbling and swollen. I have a mixed flock and as of rite now the only birds with any symptoms or deaths is a group of easter egger silkie crosses I hatched out 4 months ago. This has been going on for several days and so far I have injected all birds with liquimyacin and provided water with vitamins and electrolytes. Anybody have a guess as to what Im up against and what else I can do.

 

[smith76]

After a little more observation I can also report that the crust around the bubbly eyes is yellow. The area around and under the eyes and the ears are very swollen.

 

[dawg53]

Sounds like either Infectious Coryza or Mycoplasma Gallisepticum (MG) or both. I recommend that you cull them, disinfect everything, and wait at least 3 months before introducing new birds.

 

[speckledhen]

Sounds like either Infectious Coryza or Mycoplasma Gallisepticum (MG) or both. I recommend that you cull them, disinfect everything, and wait at least 3 months before introducing new birds.

+1. You can't fix this with antibiotics. They remain carriers. So sorry you're going through this.

 

[smith76]

Already pumped them full of liquimyacin yesterday and they seem to be doing a little better this evening.

 

[speckledhen]

If you are treating a virus, antibiotics naturally will not help that. Of course, without testing you have no way of knowing what you are treating, bacterial or viral. And even if you manage to alleviate their symptoms, that does not mean they are cured. That is the big issue with chicken diseases. Many of them are herpes type viruses and stay in the body. You cannot sell/ rehome your birds or risk passing the disease to another person's flock and you will likely have to retreat them at some point since they may have a relapse.

You could contact one of your state poultry labs and sacrifice one of the birds for testing and then you would know what you are dealing with for sure.

 

[smith76]

I have had birds with respiratory issues in the past. This just seems different. If we can get through it , great. If not, oh well chickens are cheap enough to cull the whole flock clean up and start over. If its not predators its germs.

 

[smith76]

Sick birds are still alive this morning. No more deaths so far. I guess my question now is do I give another round of injections and if so when?

 

[speckledhen]

I have had birds with respiratory issues in the past. This just seems different. If we can get through it , great. If not, oh well chickens are cheap enough to cull the whole flock clean up and start over. If its not predators its germs.

Don't you wish you could see germs? Would make everything simpler and you could eliminate them before they got in. I never buy started birds, not even chicks, from anyone, even folks I do trust that their flocks are healthy and know they'd tell me the truth if they had sickness in their flocks. And I have an Oxine solution that everyone must spray on their shoes before approaching my coops. NO one goes into them that comes to pick up birds or eggs, even with the precautions I take.

Sick birds are still alive this morning. No more deaths so far. I guess my question now is do I give another round of injections and if so when?

Tylan is the preferred antibiotic for respiratory stuff, generally, and the one most folks can get easily. That one is given for 5-7 days, but I don't know about the other one you're giving. I had Lincomycin years ago when someone sent it to me to try to treat a case of stubborn foot infection, but never used it for anything else and can't recall dosage.There's never been anything respiratory here that was a contagious disease, only pneumonia and once a fungal infection, which isn't treatable with antibiotics.

 

[smith76]

Well I brought in some game fowl from a mexican guy, who you could tell took no care of his birds. I kept theses birds in a seperate coop but I bet cross contamination occurred sometime when the kids or I were feeding and watering. Lesson learned.