Mycoplasma 😫

[Shugercube]

Pretty sure my Sebright hen has mycoplasma. She has foamy/bubbly eye discharge and is sneezing, and just LOOKS like she feels miserable She is eating and drinking just fine, at least for now.

So, I know once they have it they are carriers for life. But I have a couple questions.

1. She and my other banties live in a smaller coop about 40 feet away from my big birds, separated by a brick half-wall that completely covers the small coop. She has been living there for a little over a month, about 5-6 weeks. Is there any chance that my big birds have not been exposed?? I know obviously my banties all are at this point. None of my other birds have any of these symptoms as of yet.

2. Does this mean I can never hatch any of my banty eggs? What about my big birds? Is it safe to bring in new chicks ever?

3. I have read conflicting info about treatment. Some sources say let it run its course, others say treat with tylosin. What do the byc eggsperts recommend?

 

[Eggcessive]

Have you brought in any new birds over the last few weeks? MG can brought in by a carrier who doesn’t seem sick, or even by wild birds drinking and eating around your coop and run. I would treat the symptoms with Tylan 50 injectable given orally, or by putting Tylosin in the water of the sick bird only. A wire dog crate with treated water and her own food is a good way to do that. If you have more illness, you may want to check into using Denagard, another antibiotic.

The chickens all will probably eventually be carriers, but you may or may not have other outbreaks. The survivors are carriers, and may have another outbreak some day. MG can be spread through the hatching eggs, as well as by a carrier. It would be hard to keep it from spreading forever, since you could spread it on your shoes, clothes, or hair. I would treat her, and see how it goes. There is a vaccine available. You might have others get sick, or not. MG is pretty common in wild birds and in some backyard flocks. Some will cull sick birds with symptoms. It is usually not necessary to cull a whole flock and start over. Just keep your flock closed to birds ever being re-homed or sold.

 

[Shugercube]

Have you brought in any new birds over the last few weeks? MG can brought in by a carrier who doesn’t seem sick, or even by wild birds drinking and eating around your coop and run. I would treat the symptoms with Tylan 50 injectable given orally, or by putting Tylosin in the water of the sick bird only. A wire dog crate with treated water and her own food is a good way to do that. If you have more illness, you may want to check into using Denagard, another antibiotic.

The chickens all will probably eventually be carriers, but you may or may not have other outbreaks. The survivors are carriers, and may have another outbreak some day. MG can be spread through the hatching eggs, as well as by a carrier. It would be hard to keep it from spreading forever, since you could spread it on your shoes, clothes, or hair. I would treat her, and see how it goes. There is a vaccine available. You might have others get sick, or not. MG is pretty common in wild birds and in some backyard flocks. Some will cull sick birds with symptoms. It is usually not necessary to cull a whole flock and start over. Just keep your flock closed to birds ever being re-homed or sold.

I haven't brought in any newbies. I DID go to the poultry show at the county fair, where there were some obviously sick birds (wasn't expecting there to be sick birds there!). BUT I didn't go near my coop at all and disinfected my shoes and changed and showered as soon as I got home. So idk if I still missed something in my decontamination or if it was a wild bird that brought it to my yard or what. I'm so sad.

 

[Eggcessive]

It is hard to know how it comes into the flock for sure sometimes. But don’t be sad at this point. Just go forward and you will deal with this challenge. Hopefully, your chicken will recover and go from there.

 

[Shugercube]

It is hard to know how it comes into the flock for sure sometimes. But don’t be sad at this point. Just go forward and you will deal with this challenge. Hopefully, your chicken will recover and go from there.

thanks. I'm just sad for the future. I already have suspected Marek's, so I've already decided on a closed flock. But I was still hopeful about the prospect of selling hatching eggs, knowing MD won't pass through and just needs very careful decontamination before incubating them (I would of course have been upfront about the fact my flock is probably positive, but after TONS of research I felt confident that I could do it without putting others at risk, especially if I limited sales to other Marek's positive flocks). But there's absolutely zero hope of selling hatching eggs with a MG positive flock.

Breeding wasn't the only reason I decided to invest, but losing the ability to sell chicks AND eggs has just taken a lot of wind out of my sails, if that makes sense. No point now in trying to breed to SOP or to try any projects, since I'll never be able to show OR sell. And knowing that probably at least half of my flock is going to die from the Marek's and now the additional stress of MG with already compromised immune systems... just makes me want to give up altogether. I love all my chickens and don't want to cull any of them. But now between the MD AND MG I have no choice but to cull my extra Roos, because I obviously can't just rehome them like I had originally planned, and my property isn't suitable to try and set up a bachelor pad. Idk, it's just a lot to process I guess.

Edited for typos