Need help with apparently a respiratory disease

[casportpony]

Probably best to have them someplace warm.

-Kathy

 

[Embuck]

Thank you very much. I was out there just now; Firecracker has gotten worse, and Dynamite is holding steady. It gets down around thirty degrees Fahrenheit in their house these days. Should I do anything for the rest of the flock? I'll see about moving those to the "hospital" in the shop, where it's about forty degrees. I'm afraid I won't be able to respond for a while, since I'm going to taekwondo class, but I'll check things when I get home.

 

[casportpony]

Sick birds really should be kept in a room that's 80-85 degrees.

-Kathy

 

[Embuck]

I'm afraid there isn't any room above 75 degrees on the entire establishment. Much less one that a chicken would be permitted in. It would be nice, but it isn't feasible. They're about the same as before. Firecracker is breathing through her beak, though.

 

[marelynnshapiro]

Hello, I've had luck with Amoxi- clavamox. 3cc. If they are really stuffed up I use a triple eye drops one drop in each nostril of neomycin, polymyxin b sulfate, dexamethazone...also have used baytril but the amoxi clav worked better. Additionally I use Polivisol kids,vitamins 1 cc any time one of my chickens are,sick....plus I crush echanacea, garlic and, zinc and suck up a pinch in water and put in syringe. (No needle) I put the meds way down the throat past the breathing hole...its actually the length of the syringe...make,sure tounge is,down and push plunger slowly so they don't aspirate. I always isolate a,sick chicken into my bathroom...where they poop all over and roost on my shower curtain rod.. I make sure its warm in there. If a,chicken is,sick the others,may attack or others can get sick...once all 32 got sick....but all of my girls,have lived through respiratory infections,with this protocol...I've lost other chickens...but suddenly...like found them dead...one I misdiagnosed and by the time she stopped eating she died the next day.

 

[casportpony]

Hello, I've had luck with Amoxi- clavamox. 3cc. If they are really stuffed up I use a triple eye drops one drop in each nostril of neomycin, polymyxin b sulfate, dexamethazone...also have used baytril but the amoxi clav worked better. Additionally I use Polivisol kids,vitamins 1 cc any time one of my chickens are,sick....plus I crush echanacea, garlic and, zinc and suck up a pinch in water and put in syringe. (No needle) I put the meds way down the throat past the breathing hole...its actually the length of the syringe...make,sure tounge is,down and push plunger slowly so they don't aspirate. I always isolate a,sick chicken into my bathroom...where they poop all over and roost on my shower curtain rod.. I make sure its warm in there. If a,chicken is,sick the others,may attack or others can get sick...once all 32 got sick....but all of my girls,have lived through respiratory infections,with this protocol...I've lost other chickens...but suddenly...like found them dead...one I misdiagnosed and by the time she stopped eating she died the next day.

Welcome to BYC!

Clavamox (amoxicillin trihydrate/clavulanate potassium) is also a very good antibiotic, but it's very expensive and it's one of the few that I can't find without a prescription. One could also use the human version, but getting the correct dose for a chicken is difficult.

-Kathy

 

[Embuck]

I gave Firecracker and Dynamite the tetracycline, and they are doing much better. You can still hear Firecracker breathing, but it's a lot quieter, and she looks a little perkier. No one else is ailing.

 

[Embuck]

I now must correct my last post. Since then, three more birds have begun ailing. One cockerel and two pullets. Should I just give antibiotics to the entire little flock? There's one little chick there, about eight weeks old. However, it seems that there's an average of one chicken per day going to the "hospital."
Could the source of the infection be the litter? It hasn't been cleaned out recently, and there is a huge amount of spilled feed dust in there. Since I give the chickens crumbles, they end up "beaking" a large quantity of dust into the litter.