My next door neighbor has had an issue with her chickens making funny noises and with some discharge (looks like black dirt not running icky anything) from her chickens. Some one told her she has to cull her entire flock. A lone chicken showed up between our properties a while back - was not sick or anything but she was worried it was a carrier. Okay she is treating her flock with some anti biotic and does not want to cull her flock - Some of my chickens are also making some sneezing noises and I have seen some discharge (mostly some black dirt too not at all like a runny nose but definately sneezing like occasionally). When hers first started, I tried to get some anti biotic from the feed store and the guy was like oh everyones chickens do that this time of year - I did actually have the smaller ones all on medicated feed at the time. So every time I went to the feed store I asked about getting some duramyacin for their water and none yet. So now some of mine have some similar issues but some of mine are molting too. My neighbor has over 100 birds not all are making the noises and she practices very good sanitation steps and keeps a bleach bucket for her shoes etc. I would rather not cull my birds either if it is not some huge issue. I did recently clean and bleach out my coops and I do keep the coops clean and change bedding weekly.
So I guess I need to know that if this is some kind of respitory virus. Is it really necessary to kill them all and bleach out the coops and start over or is this some kind of managable seasonal thing. Our coops are easily 600 feet away from each other. Do I call the state ag dept and get someone to come and see? The people telling her to cull them all are all people who don't keep chickens by the way just friends, and relatives - I am thinking they want some free chicken dinner and her husband who had started building her more coops but got bored and left a bunch half built - he is not very enthusiastic about her chickens and has on occasion killed a few out of meaness and stupidity just to be a jerk - he has other issues I won't go into. My neighbor is very sweet and keeps the chickens as pets and for eggs and doesn't raise meat birds because she is not into killing them. She doesn't have any kind of formal education but knows a lot about care and keeping of animals. I just don't want her forced to do something unnecessary because a bunch of blow hards with hear say told her to do it nor do I want to be forced to do likewise without the facts. By the way birds are all eating, pooping normally and most are not quite at point of lay. My birds free range on my property and we lock them in coops at night - hers are in coops and do not free range but have plenty of room and she is very good at keeping them clean. fresh water etc.
What I want is a general opinion and idea from others who are more knowledgable and have kept chickens for a while.
Caroline
So I guess I need to know that if this is some kind of respitory virus. Is it really necessary to kill them all and bleach out the coops and start over or is this some kind of managable seasonal thing. Our coops are easily 600 feet away from each other. Do I call the state ag dept and get someone to come and see? The people telling her to cull them all are all people who don't keep chickens by the way just friends, and relatives - I am thinking they want some free chicken dinner and her husband who had started building her more coops but got bored and left a bunch half built - he is not very enthusiastic about her chickens and has on occasion killed a few out of meaness and stupidity just to be a jerk - he has other issues I won't go into. My neighbor is very sweet and keeps the chickens as pets and for eggs and doesn't raise meat birds because she is not into killing them. She doesn't have any kind of formal education but knows a lot about care and keeping of animals. I just don't want her forced to do something unnecessary because a bunch of blow hards with hear say told her to do it nor do I want to be forced to do likewise without the facts. By the way birds are all eating, pooping normally and most are not quite at point of lay. My birds free range on my property and we lock them in coops at night - hers are in coops and do not free range but have plenty of room and she is very good at keeping them clean. fresh water etc.
What I want is a general opinion and idea from others who are more knowledgable and have kept chickens for a while.
Caroline
