Symptoms will be highlighted in blue . These are all the symptoms I've seen so far.
I brought in a flock of 6 D'Anvers last week from a breeder a couple hours away. The birds started making sounds like gurgling & throwing up about halfway home. It was too late in the day for us to turn back. I put the flock of 6 -one roo, 5 hens-- in Rubbermaid brooder totes in the basement -- partially quarantined from my growning-out room, which is one floor above, one room over. The basement stairs leads from one space to another, btw.
I listened to the lung of each bird. There were rails & crackles in each, and in some case gurgling noises as well. Half the birds had dusky pink combs. The soosters and two other hens had bright red combs. I put the healthiest birds in their own tote.
I started the birds on Vet Rx, and waited several days for improvement. The sickest hens did not improve. One hen came to me with a bad eye, which I was told was from the rooster pecking it. It wouldn't open all the way. I had to quarantine them inside for the first 4 days of their stay, as it was 90 F & very humid & rainy. Not good lung weather. The fifth day was dry & sunny. I put the in a portable pen up in the woods, as a wooded ridge is out back acreage. Three of the hens wandered around, one laid an egg. The rooster crowed a lot.The last two hens spent most of the time sitting, occasionally making whooping noises, like a cockerel trying to crow for the first time.
I was nearby building a duck pen so I could check frequently on the the flock. When I went to put the birds back into their two totes in the evening, one of the sitting hens was lying, and her comb had gone from dull dusky rose to Blu-Kote blue. I could not believe the color! Is this totally indicative of blue comb?
The blue combed hen had a stroke half an hour later, in front of me, and died.
Symptoms they did NOT have....
Diarrhea, abnormal stool
Decreased appetite (only just before decline & death)
Weight loss
Uncoordination/paralysis
Foul odor (no pun)
Head shaking
Apparent mucus in nostrils or eyes
Poor grooming
Mites or lice
The birds looked really good, other than the comb color, when I got them. It was about 95 & humid when I got them. A hot spell in PA.
My options are three , as far as I know
1-- treat the birds with Duramycin-10 for 7-10 days. This I can do.
2-- cull the birds immediately. Sanitize as much as possible, and always remember, you get what you pay for ( nice looking quail D'Anver flock for $5/bird is too good to be true)
(This would be very hard for me, as half the birds don't look or act sick. Would a local butcher do this for me? Would a vet?)
3- run far away and don't ever so much as look at a chicken again... this is my impulse at this point, because I've fought off several diseases in the past few weeks and I'm really so wearof caring for a& culling sick birds, especially since my whole flock is in some amount of danger now, right?
I read a thread in which someone asked Dawg-53 for advice on Duramycin & he said that it masks symptoms for a while, until the bird gets stressed again, & then it can do them in. We have a strain of mycoplasma in our soil, but it's not MG.
Please, someone tell me what to do! I definitely can't spend a few hundred to get them tested right now.
I brought in a flock of 6 D'Anvers last week from a breeder a couple hours away. The birds started making sounds like gurgling & throwing up about halfway home. It was too late in the day for us to turn back. I put the flock of 6 -one roo, 5 hens-- in Rubbermaid brooder totes in the basement -- partially quarantined from my growning-out room, which is one floor above, one room over. The basement stairs leads from one space to another, btw.
I listened to the lung of each bird. There were rails & crackles in each, and in some case gurgling noises as well. Half the birds had dusky pink combs. The soosters and two other hens had bright red combs. I put the healthiest birds in their own tote.
I started the birds on Vet Rx, and waited several days for improvement. The sickest hens did not improve. One hen came to me with a bad eye, which I was told was from the rooster pecking it. It wouldn't open all the way. I had to quarantine them inside for the first 4 days of their stay, as it was 90 F & very humid & rainy. Not good lung weather. The fifth day was dry & sunny. I put the in a portable pen up in the woods, as a wooded ridge is out back acreage. Three of the hens wandered around, one laid an egg. The rooster crowed a lot.The last two hens spent most of the time sitting, occasionally making whooping noises, like a cockerel trying to crow for the first time.
I was nearby building a duck pen so I could check frequently on the the flock. When I went to put the birds back into their two totes in the evening, one of the sitting hens was lying, and her comb had gone from dull dusky rose to Blu-Kote blue. I could not believe the color! Is this totally indicative of blue comb?
The blue combed hen had a stroke half an hour later, in front of me, and died.
Symptoms they did NOT have....
Diarrhea, abnormal stool
Decreased appetite (only just before decline & death)
Weight loss
Uncoordination/paralysis
Foul odor (no pun)
Head shaking
Apparent mucus in nostrils or eyes
Poor grooming
Mites or lice
The birds looked really good, other than the comb color, when I got them. It was about 95 & humid when I got them. A hot spell in PA.
My options are three , as far as I know
1-- treat the birds with Duramycin-10 for 7-10 days. This I can do.
2-- cull the birds immediately. Sanitize as much as possible, and always remember, you get what you pay for ( nice looking quail D'Anver flock for $5/bird is too good to be true)
(This would be very hard for me, as half the birds don't look or act sick. Would a local butcher do this for me? Would a vet?)
3- run far away and don't ever so much as look at a chicken again... this is my impulse at this point, because I've fought off several diseases in the past few weeks and I'm really so wearof caring for a& culling sick birds, especially since my whole flock is in some amount of danger now, right?
I read a thread in which someone asked Dawg-53 for advice on Duramycin & he said that it masks symptoms for a while, until the bird gets stressed again, & then it can do them in. We have a strain of mycoplasma in our soil, but it's not MG.
Please, someone tell me what to do! I definitely can't spend a few hundred to get them tested right now.
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