New chickens and sneezing.

[graybeard]

I just brought home 3 new chickens at 13 weeks old. I've had them a little over a week and two days ago 2 of them started sneezing randomly. They still get around great. Little fireballs love chasing bugs and the older girls don't chase them but for just a second. They can't keep up. Their stool is good and solid, get plenty of food and water. It's 2 out of the 3 doing it. The third is just fine. They came from the same breeder, and 3 totally different breeds. Fixin to go get some ACV for all the birds. No runny noses by the way. Just sneezing. What could it be??? Help a brotha out on this one y'all.

 

[cafarmgirl]

It could be nothing or you could have brought home a respiratory disease. I hope that is not the case since it sounds like they are in contact with your existing flock? Strict quarantine for new birds for 30 days is a really good idea for just this reason. The occasional chicken sneeze is normal in response to dust or other allergens. If it seems frequent or starts sounding snotty or a cough develops then you've got a respiratory disease going on. In that case you'll need to treat with antibiotics and be prepared that most or all of them will come down with it in turn.

At this point, if they are active, eating, drinking and not sounding like it's a wet sneeze, no other symptoms, about all you can do is watch and listen very carefully to see if this progresses.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

x2 other than antibiotics will do nothing if it is viral or caused by fungus.

I did the same thing...bought 2 hens...AND kept them in isolation...but after a week and half let my other birds range more fully in the yard which included under the isolation pen. MISTAKE. One of the new birds looked healthy but had a funny but cute "cooing" that I did not take seriously. In a week several of my hens were sneezing and in a matter of days I had a bad case of Infectious Bronchitis go through the whole flock.

I lost one hen and one is now a poor layer(super fragile eggs) and I'll have to cull her.

It has taken me several months to get my flock back to good laying.

You would be wise to isolate the 3 new birds even this late in the game...they've likely already infected all your birds at this point. If you see any sign of further illness (coughing, squeaking, nicking, wheezing, runny noses, diarrhea), put those sick birds in strict isolation.

To hedge my bets...I would put Chick-Saver electrolytes and vitamins in the water and in a different waterer I'd put ACV to boost everyone's immunity. Fresh garlic also is really good to boost immunity. And watch, watch, watch.

Also keep their coop and run extra clean. Illness is transmitted beak to beak, through droplets, but also through the droppings. I cleaned and put into bags and hauled away all the IB infected droppings....but hopefully you won't have to get to that point.

Good luck,
Lady of McCamley

 

[graybeard]

I thought it might be due to a sudden weather change. The last few days have been rainy, really hot and humid, from cool and dry. What anti biotics do you recommend?

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Could be weather change bringing on mild CRD.

I can recommend Rooster Booster Triple Action Multi-Wormer.

It has Hygromycin B (the de-wormer) that is FDA/USDA sanctioned for egg layers, and Bacitracin that is an antibiotic also approved for layers used commercially for CRD and other respiratory illnesses. (There is no egg withdrawal.)

Not cheap, but I saw a big improvement in my flock. I applied it after the initial viral IB went through to ward off any secondary bacterial infections that can occur after viral.

I really saw a big improvement in my flock. Commercial growers keep them on this continually; however, I only fed for a week during this illness bout as it is expensive when bought in small quantity at the feed store. (The company recommends continuous feeding like the big growers or 1 week out of the month for us little growers). I plan to use it for my dewormer quarterly (using herbal methods in between.)

Might be a good thing for yours to boost immunity, de-worm, help the respiratory thing your new 2 are experiencing and ward off anything that might get passed along to the others.

I'll link a site where I found it more cheaply than the feed store.
http://www.abetterchicken.com/product/50101

Good luck,
Lady of McCamley

 

[graybeard]

Conditions are much better outside today. About 15 deg. cooler and much lower humidity. Have heard near as much sneezing. Started them on vitamins day before yesterday. Waiting on the rooster booster to show up.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Conditions are much better outside today. About 15 deg. cooler and much lower humidity. Have heard near as much sneezing. Started them on vitamins day before yesterday. Waiting on the rooster booster to show up.

Glad to hear it.

Also, make sure there isn't mold growing somewhere in all that humidity. Chickens can get over growth of mold that leaves them gasping as well.

Lady of McCamley

 

[graybeard]

I was thinking that as well. I have mushrooms everywhere this week. I do mold remediations for a living and plan on building a temporary holding pen so I can clean and treat the coop. I have an anti-fungal encapsulant I have been debating on using in the coop but I don't know it would be ok for my birds. It is a mold preventativeand keeps it from growing for a few years. I'm gonna do a little more research before I make a decision. Thank you for all your input.

 

[graybeard]

Outside conditions are crappy again this week. HOT and HUMID! No sneezing last week during a good cool snap. Now 2 of my youngest are sneezing again. They have been integrated with the flock for almost a month now and none of the other birds are affected. What can be wrong. Even the third of the 3 new birds is fine as can be and she came from the same breeder. Not even a runny nose. I'm clueless.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Outside conditions are crappy again this week. HOT and HUMID! No sneezing last week during a good cool snap. Now 2 of my youngest are sneezing again. They have been integrated with the flock for almost a month now and none of the other birds are affected. What can be wrong. Even the third of the 3 new birds is fine as can be and she came from the same breeder. Not even a runny nose. I'm clueless.

Hmmmm...without doing some deeper research the only thing that comes to my mind with what you descirbe, and mind you I'm not an expert, is residual CRD. Otherwise, I'm thinking what else changes with the weather...and why sneezing. Only other thought would it be has to be in the environment and what grows in hot humid weather but slackens in cool moist? Mold? (Although in Oregon our mold grows with the constant cool moisture.) Chickens sometimes sneeze with dust, and will simply just sneeze infrequently, but repetitive sneezing indicates a cause that should be addressed.

In my mind a viral infection would have spread to the rest of the flock almost immediately (been there, done that). Bacterial infections can spread more slowly, and sporadically, but having only the same 2 birds repeatedly being the only affected and brought on by weather change leads me to think CRD in those 2 birds....which means there is some risk of transmission to the others, how much, many think is debatable and dependent upon the immune system of the individual bird. (Many feel ACV and garlic help to boost the immune system and continuously feed with that as well as making sure worms infestation is kept at a minimum.)

CRD is prevalent in the environment. Most commonly CRD is transmitted from infected momma hen to egg to hatched baby chick, although it can be passed from mature bird to mature bird, but this is not as common. The initial MG infection would have been mild and is now producing a latent CRD (chronic respiratory disease) with weather changes...sort of like chicken asthma. CRD can be chronic. No fatalities normally occur with "true" CRD. It has been the bane of the commercial industry for years as it can reduce egg production, and if the MG strain occurs with a secondary infection of e-coli, fatalities do as well....but the symptoms of that involve the air sacs and are more dubious.

Symptoms for CRD can be very mild, and sneezing is a symptom...one of the few diseases, other than IB, that is listed as producing sneezing from the materials I rely on (linked below). The Rooster Booster Triple Action Multi-Wormer should help put that to right (make sure you have the product with Bacitracin for the CRD) as that's what the commercial growers use to keep mild CRD at bay through continuous feed. Stronger antibiotics are necessary for a more acute CRD/MG infection.

There is a government certification system in place for breeders and commercial growers to help iradicate the disease by culling all involved so that it is no longer passed to the next generation through hatching eggs or bird to bird transmission as a lot of industry dollars go to antibiotics to treat it. Some prefer to breed for natural resistance to diseases believing a hardier chicken needs less intervention because vaccines and antibiotics can breed more virulent bugs (Marek's is experiencing this with the current vaccination).

For further research, below are links to respiratory infections in chickens that I have found helpful.
Hope the information is useful to you.
Lady of McCamley

http://www.barnyardhealth.com/resinindompo.html
http://www.localharvest.org/blog/26992/entry/respiratory_disease_in_chickens
http://msucares.com/poultry/diseases/diseases.html