New hens from friend - some sneezing and a lame rooster.

[Kirmi8]

Hi, everyone.
I’ve been poking around this topic and doing a lot of reading but would appreciate additional input.
I have a flock of hatchery leghorns that are about a year old. We have only lost 3 (2 as chicks and one as an adult this winter - she had a neck defect/injury and failed to thrive during the winter). But they have been perfect otherwise.
Of course chicken math has started and a friend offered me some of their mixed heritage breed hens and a roo as they are wanting to change up breeds. These hens and roo will be a year old this summer. Everyone looked great when they arrived. Friend had treated with ivermectin twice for lice and quarantined the group in a different area (roo had a lice burden but hens did not). Once at my place they are in a temporary pen and by day three the rooster started limping. Day 7 one of the polish mixes started sneezing and had some clear fluid discharge in her eyes. Everyone is laying and eating and BAR other than the rooster who’s lameness has worsened. I started oxy tet 3.5 days ago (day 8) and no other sneezing issues and discharge from polish hen improving. I haven’t done any testing and not sure where to start with that. I will finish the 5 day course of oxy tet for sure.
So, the questions are, can this group of 8 hens ever join my leghorns? Should I just cull them? Or send them back to the friend? I’m leaning towards the rooster needing to be culled as his lameness isn’t improving and he just looks depressed. Friend stated that they have never noticed any respiratory symptoms ever. I am hyper vigilant and paranoid though, so there is the possibility that I am overthinking this all and they are irritated from the DE used generously.
I’m already attached to these hens which happened day one anyways, lol. I have zero plans to breed or sell any hens or chicks ever. They are purely for enjoyment and eggs. Thanks for your input.

 

[Smileybans]

Testing can be done through your state or Zoologix. I’ve looked into using both and Zoologix is the way I would go. My rooster had a wheeze and tylosin helped him. It might help your chickens too or they might have a virus that needs to be worked out. Or it could be dust, like you said.

Have you checked over the roosters feet and bones? You can take pictures and post them here. Maybe someone will see something amiss.

Getting started birds is hard but keeping them quarantined is key. I had gotten started birds off Craigslist and kept them quarantined for months. Mostly because of snow but also because of some health issues that popped up. The stress of a move can also bring out hidden sickness in birds. If they still have mites maybe try something with permethrin. I had to get a dust for my Craigslist chickens because a vet told me they had mites. They didn’t but I dusted them down anyway.

 

[Kirmi8]

Testing can be done through your state or Zoologix. I’ve looked into using both and Zoologix is the way I would go. My rooster had a wheeze and tylosin helped him. It might help your chickens too or they might have a virus that needs to be worked out. Or it could be dust, like you said.

Have you checked over the roosters feet and bones? You can take pictures and post them here. Maybe someone will see something amiss.

Getting started birds is hard but keeping them quarantined is key. I had gotten started birds off Craigslist and kept them quarantined for months. Mostly because of snow but also because of some health issues that popped up. The stress of a move can also bring out hidden sickness in birds. If they still have mites maybe try something with permethrin. I had to get a dust for my Craigslist chickens because a vet told me they had mites. They didn’t but I dusted them down anyway.

Thank you for your response!
The rooster has perked up a lot and is acting a lot more normal now. He is toe-touching and I think he is on the road to recovery. I’m hoping he just had an injury and resting has helped. I’ve been checking him for lice/mites frequently and I haven’t seen anything other than the nit clusters, which after some reading, I think they are just the old already hatched out egg sacs based on appearance and fact that I can’t find any adults. And that he was given every possible exit parasite treatment possible by previous owner. On palpation of his leg, I cannot appreciate any issues other than his hock feels slightly swollen now, or rather feels like it was previously swollen and is improving now. I don’t think there are any breaks, but very possibly a soft tissue injury. I normally deal with cats and dogs, bird anatomy is a tad different, ha ha.

By all accounts everyone still looks awesome and is acting normal and happy. This morning my sneezer sneezed again and cleared some stuff out. Just one big sneeze and she was fine and I didn’t hear any more. She has been looking good since last Wednesday upon completion of treatment. I know our resp tracts are different but I have been congested and sneezing after being outside lately. We haven’t had rain in far too long and things are dusty and gross after the snow melt.
I’m wondering if she is particularly sensitive to snow moulds? I would think if it was bacterial/mycoplasma the appropriate tx with antibiotics would have solved it. If it were viral, everyone else wouldn’t be looking so good either?
All in all, I will continue to keep the separate for another week or more for sure. And if sneezing persists I plan to cal the poultry vet at the Uni nearby. Picture of the sneezing culprit.

 

[Smileybans]

Sounds like your rooster is doing better. Yay! Have you considered doing the canary method before fully introducing these guys to your main flock? I’m not sure if you have looked at this yet https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...nderestimated-part-of-raising-chickens.67097/ but the method is explained in the article. I used it when introducing my Craigslist chicks. Better safe than sorry is what I think.

I’m not too familiar with all the breeds but my first thought, when I looked at the picture, was that her face looks swollen. Particularly above her eye. I could be wrong, but is that’s just how her face looks and has always looked?

 

[Myrshine]

Sneezing doesn’t always mean disease. Sneezing can be due to dusty feed intake (like chick crumbles and overall dust from the pellet feed) and environmental causes like mold or dust. Chickens don’t get allergies like us humans, so that wouldn’t be it. Is your coop cleaned out throughly? If so, how many times to do clean it per week? Ammonia build up can definitely cause sneezing, wheezing and other respiratory issues as well.

 

[Kirmi8]

Sneezing doesn’t always mean disease. Sneezing can be due to dusty feed intake (like chick crumbles and overall dust from the pellet feed) and environmental causes like mold or dust. Chickens don’t get allergies like us humans, so that wouldn’t be it. Is your coop cleaned out throughly? If so, how many times to do clean it per week? Ammonia build up can definitely cause sneezing, wheezing and other respiratory issues as well.

Coop is exceedingly clean and well ventilated but they new ones aren’t in the coop. I have them in a temporary pen set up over grass and they have a huge dog igloo shelter with straw bedding. It is not ideal but I didn’t plan to house them permanently here. But the ventilation is excellent - and perhaps too good as far as it being very dry, windy and dusty here currently. No wheezing or abnormal breathing sounds (that I can hear). They are on the same feed as my leghorns and it has never caused an issue for them.

 

[Kirmi8]

Sounds like your rooster is doing better. Yay! Have you considered doing the canary method before fully introducing these guys to your main flock? I’m not sure if you have looked at this yet https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...nderestimated-part-of-raising-chickens.67097/ but the method is explained in the article. I used it when introducing my Craigslist chicks. Better safe than sorry is what I think.

I’m not too familiar with all the breeds but my first thought, when I looked at the picture, was that her face looks swollen. Particularly above her eye. I could be wrong, but is that’s just how her face looks and has always looked?

yes! Actually I was just debating if we should put one of leghorns on with them - the term canary method is all too fitting! But then I figured she would just die from the pure shock of being in a new place with strange birds outside all the time and not in the coop (although temperatures inside and out should be the same at this point because windows are opened all day in the main coop).
I checked my earlier pictures when the my first got here and she looked the same.
My son thought they looked cranky lol. And pictures of them online show a similar look.
I sat with my rooster yesterday afternoon and groomed him and got rid of some the dead nit clusters and see that he has new feather growth, so that’s encouraging. I would also expect that he would have shown respiratory signs if this was a pathogen because he was so run down due to parasite load prior to arriving.

 

[Kirmi8]

Also - spoke with my friend and he said that he hasn’t seen any sneezing or other causes for concern in his flock. He has rehomed a few other hens and has not heard of anything with them either. His neighbour has moved some of his hens in with their leghorns and no issues. He feels fairly sure that it was from his liberal use of DE and apologized. He also said he is happy to take them back and exchange for two different hens if I’d like.
Not sure what to do with that offer. I would have to start my quarantine all over again if I put them in the same place. I don’t really have another set up to put another quarantine pen. But maybe it might just be good to remove the two having potential issues and wait and see if anyone else develops anything, then if they successfully Intergrate with my leghorns, I could do another quarantine with the two (or more let’s face it, chicken math) replacements.
Also, I’m noticing this morning that I’m quite congested and my face was covered in dirt/dust after sitting in the quarantine pen for 45-1hour. I hope that I’m not just willing it to be true, but I think environmental and DE may be the culprit.

 

[Myrshine]

Oh ok, that may be it then.