New flocks ~ many getting sick and dying

[moma3boys]

I've had a few backyard (1 acre), free-ranging chickens and ducks for several years, always buying from reputable hatcheries like Ideal or McMurray or incubating quail, guinea, turkey, ducks or chickens to add to my little flock.

Well, to make a long story short, there's a woman in my community (whom I don't personally know) who's dying from stage 4 lung cancer who had a HUGE poultry farm of mostly free range geese, ducks, turkey and chickens. I was given dozens of these birds, all of them looked GREAT, but now my chickens are getting sick and dying and we've lost a couple of turkeys too. There is blood in some of their poo so I've treated the whole flock for coccidiosis (msp?) with 2 different antibiotics. Now, one or two have pus coming out of their eyes so badly they're swollen shut and oozing and it's coming out of one hens beak and nostrils too. She's my only RIR and I've almost given up hope she's gonna make it. I walked my yard this morning specifically looking at poo and found a few with blood still and a few foamy/frothy light brown. What else can I do????

I've never dealt with sick and dying animals like this! I've tried to research according to signs/symptoms and some of them overlap with other conditions.

I also have several chicken and a couple of turkey eggs from these animals in my incubator. Will they even hatch or be sick when they do? They are developing.


Please, I am looking for experience from y'all; recommendations, encouragement, advice...etc.


I have:
5 Mandarin ducks, completely isolated from the rest of the poultry and apparently healthy
approx. 15 geese of various breeds
approx. 15 ducks of various breeds (not counting the mandarins)
6 quail
9 turkey of various breeds
3 guineas
11 chickens of various breeds

 

[naakte]

I swapped a gal for a sultan and didnt know it but the sultan had lice and God knows what else. I treated her and her area and put her on antibiotics and kept her from my chicken for nearly 2 months. no more problems here. free ranging is something wonderful to do for chickens as long as you are treating monthly for worms. I am a big chicken (whata pun) about free ranging and stay out with them a gun at my side while they are enjoying running around. anytime you introduce a foreign chicken to you flock, you are taking a huge risk of introducing pathogens to your flock. The new birds may not be sick because they have built up an immunity, where you chickens have not. I would put EVERYONE on antibiotics in their drinking water for 7 to 10 days, and worm everyone with pyrantel pamoate, or piperazine. with pyrantel, dose right in the mouth using a needless syringe to make sure they are getting enough to do the job, and repeat 2 times 1.5 to 2 weeks apart. Piperazine is different. please continue to post updates I want to know how they are doing.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

http://shagbarkbantams.com/contents.htm
If you click on "my chicken has a cold, part I, II, and III" he talks about incubation periods and the common respiratory ailments.

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044
diagnosis charts at bottom

Coccidiosis will come up if they are already immunocompromised I have read. Many will probably tell you to cull and start over. You might think about trying to get a necropsy done. Some states I have heard will do this for free- ask a vet or your county extension agent.

I believe you should have a dead bird tested to see what it is- you might not even need to cull if it is curable. I have read posts on BYC about some who take the bird into the vet or have it tested and find out it is completely curable and if they had guessed what it was they would have come to the conclusion that it was hopeless and their birds would become carriers (and the hatching eggs too).

I don't think I said this very well, but some just choose to close their flocks- no in and no out - to prevent spreading disease to other flocks. But without having a concrete diagnosis it is guessing. If they are pets and you don't want to sell chickens or eggs then you can just ride it out. There are medications to treat chronic respiratory diseases but they can come back over and over even with treatment.