I've messed up I believe, I'm new to chickens and I brought in 4 older chickens from craigslist to my flock of 25 3 week old. After a couple weeks a couple of the older chick's started with crusty eyes and always scratching, and slinging snot around, and making this litl cough sound. Now a couple of my little ones r scratching at their eyes and shaking their heads. What could it be, should I remove the older birds, is it to late, and can my chick's b saved? Also they are all on medicated chicken starter and vitamin water.
Unfortunately I think it is too late to stop this spreading through your flock now. If it's still just a few, you could try isolating them. It sounds like a respiratory infection of some sort. They can be treated with antibiotics and the symptoms will disappear, but the flock will be 'carriers' and it is likely to flare up again from time to time. It wont kill them or reduce their egg laying or happiness, but as your birds are carriers, it affects selling chicks and things too. There's lots of good info on these forums, so have a search for 'sneezing' and read up on it.
If they have a virus, antibiotics will do nothing, just like with humans. In either case, antibiotics will not remove the carrier status of a bird who has been Mycoplasma-positive, if that is what they have. Read up on Chronic Respiratory Disease (CRD) of which Mycoplamosis is one aspect, both MG (mycoplasma galliseptum) and MS (mycoplasma synovaie). ALWAYS quarantine new birds, always. If you didn't, remove them NOW. A bird with a strong immune system may have been exposed, but there is a chance it won't catch what they have, a slight chance, if you quarantine them ASAP. Please read through this thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=12751
Quote:If it is mycoplasma it is not contagious to humans or other mammals. It is only contagious to other birds. Hoping for the best for your flock. I just went through a respiratory scare so I know how stressful this is.
Quote:No. But you can carry it from your hands/clothes/shoes to the other chickens (and any other birds for that matter wild, livestock, pet). Go here. It's technical in nature, but it's so much more useful because of the pictures... and in my opinion, it's better than hearing 100 people's guesses and opinions. http://www.thepoultrysite.com/publications/6/Diseases_Of_Poultry It's a respitory infection for sure, no doubt there. You should quarentine... but it also might be too late and you might want to treat everyone. How you care for your flock is up to you. Some would put them all down, some would treat. Some would let natural order take place. Exactly why I like that link there. Get the information, make up your own mind. Good luck.
