MY CHICKENS SOUND LIKE A TRUMPET. WHAT MEDS DO I NEED ???

[MINDANAO DAVE]

I went out to feed the chickens this morning and could hear what sounded like a trumpet from at least 5 of them as I have a flock over 90 birds. I am wondering if someone can advise me on this and also what meds do I need to get this under control.

Thanks
Dave

 

[dawg53]

Are they stretching their necks up in the air, head shaking, scratching their necks? It could be symptoms a respiratory disease or gapeworm, maybe a fungal problem. If it's possible to submit fecal samples from these birds to be tested by a vet for worm eggs would be best to determine if it's gapeworm or not.
If there's no vet to test fecal samples, you could necropsy your sickest bird that's "trumpeting" and perform a necropsy on her. Gapeworm are located in the windpipe. You would have to vertically slice the windpipe open and spread it apart to see the red in color worms, they will be "Y" shaped. If you dont see them, it's a respiratory or fungal issue.

 

[MINDANAO DAVE]

Thanks so much for responding. I wormed the whole flock about 3 to 4 weeks ago. I have had nothing but sick chickens for the past 3 months with respiratory problems and some very severe at times. I have near 100 birds but I did worm everyone of them. At one point I had 6 birds in quaratine . I even had to bring my favorite into the air con and injected them with anti fungal serum. They all recovered and yet today they started sounding like a brass instrument. I did start anti fungal and antibiotic in their water today. Our weather here for over 3 months was mid to high 90`s and no rain during that time. I will have to keep working on these birds. Ha Thanks Again

 

[dawg53]

Unfortunately respiratory diseases never go away. Surviving birds are carriers for life. Respiratory diseases quickly spread through a flock. Antibiotics only mask symptoms and the disease is never cured. When birds are stressed in some manner, the symptoms reappear and requires treatment again. Then it's possible a more potent antibiotic will be required to treat the symptoms because the bacteria will have become resistant to the previous antibiotics that were initially used. This can happen over and over again. Then there's the issue of egg withdrawal periods not to mention the time and money spent to treat the sick birds. Egg production takes a big hit, sick birds dont lay eggs.
It's best to cull a sick flock, disinfect everything and repopulate 8 months later. Some diseases stay in the environment longer than others. If you're are dealing with mycoplasma diseases (MG/MS,) you could easily repopulate in one month.