Next Steps for Potential URI

[Eggcessive]

Tylosin or doxycycline can be used together. Some pigeon sites recommend that, but tylosin or doxycycline can be used separately to treat MG in poultry. SMZ TMP and other sulfas are used more to treat coryza. Coryza symptoms are usually worse than MG and it is said to smell very bad. Did your sick birds have a bead odor from their beaks? If not, MG might be the cause, especially due to the bubbles in eyes.

It is kind of funny that the vet jumped to giving SMZ-TMP or sulfa antibiotics, and said not to give Tylosin, since tylosin is actually approved for chickens, while sulfa antibiotics are not. They are frequently given by vets though, and also treat coccidiosis and fowl cholera.

 

[brahmorp]

Tylosin or doxycycline can be used together. Some pigeon sites recommend that, but tylosin or doxycycline can be used separately to treat MG in poultry. SMZ TMP and other sulfas are used more to treat coryza. Coryza symptoms are usually worse than MG and it is said to smell very bad. Did your sick birds have a bead odor from their beaks? If not, MG might be the cause, especially due to the bubbles in eyes.

It is kind of funny that the vet jumped to giving SMZ-TMP or sulfa antibiotics, and said not to give Tylosin, since tylosin is actually approved for chickens, while sulfa antibiotics are not. They are frequently given by vets though, and also treat coccidiosis and fowl cholera.

Hm, interesting. I've used SMZ-TMP in horses but never birds, so I didn't really wonder if it was approved or not.

No bad odor, and the bubbles were a very brief and one-off thing.

They've been off any antibiotics for a week now and I've been giving a probiotic to get their guts back to normal. Considering giving denagard to see if that does the trick, but I am hesitant to try so many antibiotics. The vet said I could bring them back for a culture since they've been off them long enough, but I'm having a really hard time justifying $205 for the culture alone, not counting the exam they'll probably require and the cost of any medication.

 

[Eggcessive]

If you ever see another outbreak with symptoms, and they have not yet received antibiotics, you can get swabs to collect samples for PCR testing for 8 different respiratory diseases for around $90 Zoologix.com to test your own birds privately. Here is a link for that:
http://www.zoologix.com/avian/Datasheets/PoultryRespiratoryPanel.htm

I’m not saying that sulfa antibiotics are never used on chickens, since a few years ago, many people treated their birds for coccidiosis with Sulmet. It is just that few antibiotics or mediciens are approved for poultry because we eat the eggs and sometimes the meat. FARAD is usually up to date on current allowed medicines. This article is dated 2015, but they can be contacted for more updated info:
http://www.farad.org/publications/digests/122015EggResidue.pdf

 

[brahmorp]

Oh wow! Perhaps I will go that route then. Thank you so much for the info and linking the site. They still have symptoms, and they've been off antibiotics long enough now for accurate results.

 

[Eggcessive]

Viruses sometimes are a cause of respiratory disease, and those do not respond to antibiotics. The Zoologix testing tests for 8 different diseases including MG, coryza, and several viruses including infectious bornchitis, the most common disease. Sometimes you can get a false negative result, especially if antibiotics are used or symptoms have decreased. If you should ever lose a chicken, your state vet can perform a necropsy and testing on a body that has been kept cold, but not frozen, and sent to them soon after death. Here is a link for most state vets:
https://www.metzerfarms.com/PoultryLabs.cfm