Need advice please! New to raising chickens... Sick chicks!

[jwyles]

hello all! Can someone please help me? Yes this is long but please bare with me. I've got 10 chicks varying in age from 5-10 weeks. They have all began showing some signs of respiratory distress. Some have nasal discharge and sneezing, some have had swollen sinus on one side that went down on its own before treatment began, a few are panting even when not that hot and a couple are gaping. One is gaping more than the others and letting out a loud chirp afterwards. I began treating with tetracycline 500mg in the water and have noticed signs of improvements (but not a complete turnaround) in all but the one that is gaping. I also treated with safeguard-a small squirt in each of their mouths and plan to repeat on 10th day. No where around me has any other antibiotic besides injectable and I was told they are too young. Please tell me what else I could do. I've given vet rx, acv, garlic, turmeric, oregano, cayenne, and more trying to get relief for them. Truly most seem to be on the mend except the gaping one and of course she is my favorite girl! Also I searched high and low even going out of town for an antifungal and the store's "chicken expert" told me chickens can't get fungus and all I could do was give probiotics which I've done every day since they were chicks. Please help me out! Tell me they're not doomed! And I don't want to cull bc they are pet purpose and personal egg purpose only. No danger to anyone else. Also how long should treat with tetracycline and if dosage right? TIA!

 

[Kiki]

Where are these chicks living?
Indoors in a brooder? with or with out heat?

 

[Kiki]

What does their poop look like?

 

[jwyles]

Where are these chicks living?
Indoors in a brooder? with or with out heat?

I live in Louisiana where it's been around mid 70's-80's and the old ones have been outside in a run for about 3 weeks. It's the older ones showing the most symptoms tho. We have been getting a ton of rain lately.

 

[jwyles]

What does their poop look like?

I've referenced the poop chart a # of times and it's always within normal according to it. Sometimes it's more brownish red and sometimes it's very solid and formed but it's never alarmed me.

 

[jwyles]

I live in Louisiana where it's been around mid 70's-80's and the old ones have been outside in a run for about 3 weeks. It's the older ones showing the most symptoms tho. We have been getting a ton of rain lately.

I decided to give a tad more info on this reply... they are in a 100 sq ft run completely covered with a tin roof. The flooring is pine straw. A large section of the run is temporarily enclosed with tarps and make shift roosts bc we are adding a 40 sq ft completely enclosed/ indoor coop.

 

[DocBirdBrain]

It sounds like your chickens are suffering from a contagious respiratory disease- possibilities include Mycoplasma, infectious coryza, infectious bronchitis, Newcastle, avian influenza or infectious laryngotracheitis. Some of these are bacterial, meaning they can be treated with antibiotics. Some are viral, and all that can be done is supportive care.

I would recommend you find a vet in your area who treats birds. Even if it is a viral infection, they can be helped with warmth, fluids, syringe feedings, and possibly antibiotics to keep away secondary bacterial infections. Unfortunately, very few antibiotics are now available from feed stores these days. A bird vet should really be able to help. Best of luck to you, I know this is very stressful.

 

[jwyles]

It sounds like your chickens are suffering from a contagious respiratory disease- possibilities include Mycoplasma, infectious coryza, infectious bronchitis, Newcastle, avian influenza or infectious laryngotracheitis. Some of these are bacterial, meaning they can be treated with antibiotics. Some are viral, and all that can be done is supportive care.

I would recommend you find a vet in your area who treats birds. Even if it is a viral infection, they can be helped with warmth, fluids, syringe feedings, and possibly antibiotics to keep away secondary bacterial infections. Unfortunately, very few antibiotics are now available from feed stores these days. A bird vet should really be able to help. Best of luck to you, I know this is very stressful.

This is NOT what I wanted to hear. I have actually called every single vet in my area and none are familiar with treating chickens for these diseases. I asked if they could perform the tests for them and they all told me no! It is very stressful because it was so hard to track down every breed I wanted and now I may lose them. I've read a little about Oxine. Has anyone had any luck with it and do you think the tetracycline is a good idea?

 

[DocBirdBrain]

If you can find an avian or exotic vet, they should be able to help with chickens. Vets who treat exotics are more comfortable working with different species.
The Louisiana Animal Disease Diagnostic Lab at LSU can do testing on submitted samples, but it would help to have a vet facilitate getting the samples for testing and filling out the forms.
If I had to randomly chose an antibiotic, I would go with Tylan, a teaspoon of powder to a gallon of water (or follow package directions). Maybe you can still find that at a feed store? If you have tetracycline, keep using it- a common dose is 25mg/lb-- the package should have directions for mixing it with drinking water for poultry

 

[jwyles]

No tylan powder here. You're not going to believe this but most feed stores here don't carry anything but tylsn injectable. No poultry antibiotics. They think that gnats cause the symptoms and kill the birds . I personally think the gnats are attracted to the nasal discharge and that's why they think it. Gnats are bad here but I just don't think they're the reason. The tetracycline I managed to find at a pet sense here. i was only able to find it in the fish meds at pet sense. It can be used for chickens but the dosing info I found online was limited. And yes LSU will prob be the only answer I may get. I just keep wondering if I shouldn't order oxine online and most jic it's fungal. What do you think? Also do you know if a site that sells the tylan powder online? No local bets or feed stores have it.