Losing my flock at an alarming rate :(

[cowcreekgeek]

Updating everyone after a pretty busy week or two...


Later that day, we located a place considerably out of town that had one bag of the powder left! (Why on earth was every place in and around town out, I don't know). We began to treat the entire flock, including the last sick chicken who we had quarantined in the house.

After two days of fighting the good fight, the last of the chickens who showed the serious symptoms passed at some point throughout the night. I think she was getting better thanks to the Corrid, but wasn't eating or drinking enough, unfortunately. This bout of Cocci cost us 3 of 12 hens, taking us down to 9. All the other hens have had the 5 day dose, and seem to be unaffected.

Let this be a lesson to always have Corrid on hand! I still can't believe it took us so long and so many places to find someplace that finally had it. Now we know what signs to look for and exactly what is happening, so hopefully we don't ever have this problem again. The kids were absolutely devistated to lose 3 hens. I think towards the end of winter, we'll add another 3 from Meyer to replace them as an Easter gift to the kiddies

Really hate seein' folks go through this, most esp. when there's kids to explain it all to. I'm really sorry for your losses.

I had just minutes ago ordered some Amprol

20% Amprolium off eBay, having heard so many speak of difficulties (casportpony brought it up again on this page). And, it's hard to think beyond the three you've lost, but imagine how many you'll save by sharing this hard lesson w/ others on here ...

 

[Dykstra]

Check laryngotracheitis as a possibility. It's kind of a scary poultry disease and apparently is highly contagious. All of our new chicks have a 50% mortality rate, seeming to be healthy up to about 12 weeks or so, then either going through the symptoms and dying, or living through the symptoms and being "carriers".
I have stopped bringing in new birds or selling any of our birds because I'm fairly certain this is what we have in the flock. Sometimes the eyes will be bubbly or closed and goopy. In really bad eye cases, the eye swells up and they can actually lose the lens of the eye and have a blank "eye" left after it heals (this can take months). Sometimes there is a runny nose. Sometimes the chicken flicks its beak (congestion) and sometimes there's sneezing. Once in a while, there is blood flicked out with mucus (we had one healthy hen on a nest in a dog crate. One morning she was dead on the nest, and there was blood flicked inside the crate and on her beak. It was at most a 12-hour time-period when she went downhill).
Most of the time a sick bird will sit all huddled up, with it's head pulled in close to its body. Sometimes they waste away and can't or won't eat. In the worst cases, they are gasping for air. Sometimes a bird will be dead with no symptoms that we can see. My brother-in-law humanely butchered a few that were the worst off, and said that they were literally suffocating to death on their own mucus.
Oh, and with this sickness, antibiotics don't seem to help (at least in the water) and some antibiotics can seem to make it worse. There's an eye-drop vaccine that is possible.
It's nasty, but even on-line, the information is hard to find. And I might have other sicknesses in there, too, since our birds seem so compromised with being sick from this one thing.
If you have any birds with respiratory symptoms or with goopy eyes, don't let any other chicken owners walk through your coop. Don't walk from one coop to another on your own property without sanitizing your shoes. We have 2 areas, and one was not affected until much later. I'm certain it was because I didn't know what I was dealing with.

Not to alarm anyone, but please watch your chickens for any signs of sitting huddled up, goopy eyes, sneezing, beak-flicking, or gasping for air. Isolate that bird immediately and sanitize your hands before handling any other. We've found out the hard way that chicken sicknesses can so easily affect the whole flock!
Laura.

 

[cowcreekgeek]

Additional Informations for further study
IN RE: Laura's excellent post about Laryngotracheitis ...

Check laryngotracheitis as a possibility. It's kind of a scary poultry disease and apparently is highly contagious. All of our new chicks have a 50% mortality rate, seeming to be healthy up to about 12 weeks or so, then either going through the symptoms and dying, or living through the symptoms and being "carriers".
I have stopped bringing in new birds or selling any of our birds because I'm fairly certain this is what we have in the flock. Sometimes the eyes will be bubbly or closed and goopy. In really bad eye cases, the eye swells up and they can actually lose the lens of the eye and have a blank "eye" left after it heals (this can take months). Sometimes there is a runny nose. Sometimes the chicken flicks its beak (congestion) and sometimes there's sneezing. Once in a while, there is blood flicked out with mucus (we had one healthy hen on a nest in a dog crate. One morning she was dead on the nest, and there was blood flicked inside the crate and on her beak. It was at most a 12-hour time-period when she went downhill).
Most of the time a sick bird will sit all huddled up, with it's head pulled in close to its body. Sometimes they waste away and can't or won't eat. In the worst cases, they are gasping for air. Sometimes a bird will be dead with no symptoms that we can see. My brother-in-law humanely butchered a few that were the worst off, and said that they were literally suffocating to death on their own mucus.
Oh, and with this sickness, antibiotics don't seem to help (at least in the water) and some antibiotics can seem to make it worse. There's an eye-drop vaccine that is possible.
It's nasty, but even on-line, the information is hard to find. And I might have other sicknesses in there, too, since our birds seem so compromised with being sick from this one thing.
If you have any birds with respiratory symptoms or with goopy eyes, don't let any other chicken owners walk through your coop. Don't walk from one coop to another on your own property without sanitizing your shoes. We have 2 areas, and one was not affected until much later. I'm certain it was because I didn't know what I was dealing with.

Not to alarm anyone, but please watch your chickens for any signs of sitting huddled up, goopy eyes, sneezing, beak-flicking, or gasping for air. Isolate that bird immediately and sanitize your hands before handling any other. We've found out the hard way that chicken sicknesses can so easily affect the whole flock!
Laura.

Infectious Laryngotracheitis: Introduction - Merck Veterinary Manual
www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/206700...
Infectious laryngotracheitis (ILT) is an acute, highly contagious, herpesvirus infection of chickens and pheasants characterized by severe dyspnea, coughing, ...

Laryngotracheitis: Causes, Symptoms and Treatment
www.avianweb.com/laryngotracheitis.html
Laryngotracheitis: Prevention, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Supportive Nutrition and Treatment Options.

[PDF] Infectious Laryngotracheitis Virus (ILT) - North Carolina Cooperative ...
www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/poulsci/tech_manuals/laryngotracheitis.pdf
Infectious Laryngotracheitis virus is a herpes virus that causes respiratory disease in chickens. ILT is a reportable disease in North Carolina and some other ...

First complete genome sequence of infectious laryngotracheitis virus
www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2164/12/197/
by SW Lee - 2011 - Cited by 7 - Related articles
Infectious laryngotracheitis virus (ILTV) is an alphaherpesvirus that causes acute respiratory disease in chickens worldwide. To date, only one complete genomic ...

 

[cocosandy]

I would definitely get a bird or 3 necropsied at the state vet's. Find them on line and find out what the deal is. Some will take mail submissions with cold packs, and if its close enough some will come pick up.
I have found that the "plug" can be removed carefully by massaging with vetrx down the throat and trying to pop it out or get it with a long qtip. The opening of the trachea has a thick coating of rubbery pus blocking it when they are gasping and whooping. You may not see this disease if you dont have experience but you have to listen to their breathing and look at their nostrils to see if there is clear discharge. Also, combs can be a little blue.
I am going to vaccinate the entire flock as per first state vet supply...but get a diagnosis if you can first.
If you look in their beak at the place that opens and closes when they breathe, and its surrounded with yellow rubbery stuff, thats it. Try to dislodge it, drip vetrx down the throat and also drip into nostrils and get the vaccine.
Good luck

 

[cowcreekgeek]

I would definitely get a bird or 3 necropsied at the state vet's. Find them on line and find out what the deal is. Some will take mail submissions with cold packs, and if its close enough some will come pick up.
I have found that the "plug" can be removed carefully by massaging with vetrx down the throat and trying to pop it out or get it with a long qtip. The opening of the trachea has a thick coating of rubbery pus blocking it when they are gasping and whooping. You may not see this disease if you dont have experience but you have to listen to their breathing and look at their nostrils to see if there is clear discharge. Also, combs can be a little blue.
I am going to vaccinate the entire flock as per first state vet supply...but get a diagnosis if you can first.
If you look in their beak at the place that opens and closes when they breathe, and its surrounded with yellow rubbery stuff, thats it. Try to dislodge it, drip vetrx down the throat and also drip into nostrils and get the vaccine.
Good luck

This thread's got a bit of age on it, so necropsy isn't an option for them. However, when folks search for the disease you're suggesting this treatment for -- which is Infectious Laryngotracheitis. They'll hopefully come across this response to your post, so as to see what you've suggested, which could certainly make all the difference for them.

I'll also include the previous links I'd submitted at that time:

Infectious Laryngotracheitis: Introduction - Merck Veterinary Manual
www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/206700...
Infectious laryngotracheitis (ILT) is an acute, highly contagious, herpesvirus infection of chickens and pheasants characterized by severe dyspnea, coughing, ...

Laryngotracheitis: Causes, Symptoms and Treatment
www.avianweb.com/laryngotracheitis.html
Laryngotracheitis: Prevention, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Supportive Nutrition and Treatment Options.

[PDF] Infectious Laryngotracheitis Virus (ILT) - North Carolina Cooperative ...
www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/poulsci/tech_manuals/laryngotracheitis.pdf
Infectious Laryngotracheitis virus is a herpes virus that causes respiratory disease in chickens. ILT is a reportable disease in North Carolina and some other ...

First complete genome sequence of infectious laryngotracheitis virus
www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2164/12/197/
by SW Lee - 2011 - Cited by 7 - Related articles
Infectious laryngotracheitis virus (ILTV) is an alphaherpesvirus that causes acute respiratory disease in chickens worldwide. To date, only one complete genomic ...