PLEASE HELP ME!!!!!

[warmheart]

Dutchbunny, I admire your perspective. Your feathered family members are in good hands with you caring for them. Coryza is scary, no doubts there, but others have gotten their birds through this. You've got good ideas here, and solutions for helping them recover. I will be sending positive energy that each flock member does well and that you and your birds get through this as smoothly as is possible. The antibiotics, and the suggestions here for supportive care, hopefully will see your dear hens through this illness into wellness again.

 

[dawg53]

Quote: None of this stuff will work against INFECTIOUS Coryza. (There's a reason it's called INFECTIOUS, look it up.) You'd be better off culling them. If you dont, you'll be wasting time and money on meds that wont treat nor cure them. You'll be nursemaiding a bunch of sick birds for the rest of their lives...IF they survive. Good luck.

 

[PoultryPedia]

Sorry--I just realized I'd only read one page before posting--& there were 2 more pages of info, so I duplicated some others' comments.

More info: If you force-feed, if you feed actually down the throat (rather than just into the beak), you will need to use a 1 cc size syringe. Larger ones don't fit down the throat well.
You should be able to get needles and syringes from many people pharmacies (other than sometimes Wal-Mart, which has some kind of policy) without a problem. The needles are higher quality than a feed store's & the syringes tend to glide more smoothly so you don't accidentally spurt an overdose. A pharmacy also offers thinner needles (25-gauge is a nice thin one) and smaller syringes that are well-suited for dosing chickens. Price is about the same.

I'm wondering if your vet gave you correct dosing for the Duramycin??? LA-200 is a brand of Oxytetracycline injectible & the dose for it is 1 to 2 cc's every three days (It is a long-acting formulation), from what I know. Giving just 0.1 of Duramycin seems like too little unless it is a much more concentrated form. I would verify the dose ASAP because it seems like they are only getting 1/10 to 1/20 of what they should!

The info at http://durvet.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=33:duramycin-72-200 says Duramycin 72-200 is the generic of LA-200 and they both have 200 mg Oxytetracycline per mL.
Are you using Duramycin 72-200 or Duramycin 100 injectible? Duramycin 100 is more diluted (only 100 mg Oxytetracycline per mL).

By the way, Oxytetracycline seemed very effective for my birds when they were suffering from Coryza. I hope it works well with your birds.

On the Chicken Medicine Chart, I've posted other info on Oxytetracycline that can be important for effectiveness & safety, so I'd recommend reading that, too.

 

[PoultryPedia]

Note: Terramycin ointment is great for putting on the eyes of birds that have Coryza. It clears up problems very well. However, it's pricey--$18 for a tiny tube that'd probably treat only 5-8 chickens.
I am not positive it's safe, but I would suspect that instead, you could dilute some powder of one of the Tetracycline-class meds in a little water or saline & put it on the bird's eyes or at least dribble a little in its nostrils as a nasal flush.

 

[dutchbunny83]

None of this stuff will work against INFECTIOUS Coryza. (There's a reason it's called INFECTIOUS, look it up.) You'd be better off culling them. If you dont, you'll be wasting time and money on meds that wont treat nor cure them. You'll be nursemaiding a bunch of sick birds for the rest of their lives...IF they survive. Good luck.

I'm going to be completely blunt with you (well I'm holding back some), you seem extremely arogant and smug.
I don't know why you keep chickens, but mine are my PETS, compaions, some are like family members (my barred rocks and my silkie roo). None of this is about the money. We spend a fortune on our chickens, it's the least cost effective thing ever, but at least we get eggs unlike a dog. If you had a dog you were really close to and it was sick would you just slit it's neck??? (I think I'm afraid to know the answer to that....)

Sorry--I just realized I'd only read one page before posting--& there were 2 more pages of info, so I duplicated some others' comments.

More info: If you force-feed, if you feed actually down the throat (rather than just into the beak), you will need to use a 1 cc size syringe. Larger ones don't fit down the throat well.
You should be able to get needles and syringes from many people pharmacies (other than sometimes Wal-Mart, which has some kind of policy) without a problem. The needles are higher quality than a feed store's & you can get thinner needles (25-gauge is a nice thin one) and smaller syringes that are well-suited for dosing chickens. Price is about the same.

I'm wondering if your vet gave you correct dosing for the Duramycin??? LA-200 is a brand of Oxytetracycline injectible & the dose for it is 1 to 2 cc's every three days (It is a long-acting formulation), from what I know. Giving just 0.1 of Duramycin seems like too little unless it is a much more concentrated form. I would verify the dose ASAP because it seems like they are only getting 1/10 to 1/20 of what they should!

The info at http://durvet.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=33:duramycin-72-200 says Duramycin 72-200 is the generic of LA-200 and they both have 200 mg Oxytetracycline per mL.
Are you using Duramycin 72-200 or Duramycin 100 injectible? Duramycin 100 is more diluted (only 100 mg Oxytetracycline per mL).

By the way, Oxytetracycline seemed very effective for my birds when they were suffering from Coryza. I hope it works well with your birds.

On the Chicken Medicine Chart, I've posted other info on Oxytetracycline that can be important for effectiveness & safety, so I'd recommend reading that, too.

It's the duramycin injectible that is 200mg Oxytetracycline.
It's technically for larger livestock, though the dosage said .2cc for a 5lbs animal
The vet said start with .1cc since they're 6 months and younger (besides the ones who came in and brought the disease), though it was slightly higher because that's super tiny to measure, but then some bubbled right out the injection site when I pulled the syringe out so it probably came to be about equal.
I gave .2cc to the ones still looking really sick today-- My 3 barred rocks and the auction birds that brought this in. Daisy is up and moving around, but doesn't seem like she can see well and still has gunk coming out. Roxy my other barred rock is looking worse than Daisy yesterday and this morning her beak was completely crusted shut from the mucus. My rooster smells the worst and has gunk pouring out his nose, but his big black eyes are clear. He's running around the yard and crowing, but the crow sounds conjested and sick.
The other ones all still have runny noses, but no one has gotten worse. They are all running the yard and eating and came for their treats this morning.
I still have the antibiotics in the water, if the other ones get worse through the day I will give them the injectibles too. My husband was late for work so we only did the really sick ones and I can't hold them down and give the injection myself.

Dutchbunny, I admire your perspective. Your feathered family members are in good hands with you caring for them. Coryza is scary, no doubts there, but others have gotten their birds through this. You've got good ideas here, and solutions for helping them recover. I will be sending positive energy that each flock member does well and that you and your birds get through this as smoothly as is possible. The antibiotics, and the suggestions here for supportive care, hopefully will see your dear hens through this illness into wellness again.

THANK YOU!!!
Thanks for all the positivity, I need it!!!

 

[PoultryPedia]

In case my experiences give useful perspective: I had 2 birds that came to me with Coryza and MG, from what I've deduced from observations.
They got over their Coryza symptoms pretty quickly mostly via Oxytetracycline & the bird I put with them didn't seem too affected by Coryza, though he developed other symptoms. The birds don't seem to have had recurrences of Coryza, though they do have flare-ups of symptoms I believe are MG & other causes.
Yes, I have a closed flock & yes, I nursemaid at times.

 

[dutchbunny83]

In case my experiences give useful perspective: I had 2 birds that came to me with Coryza and MG, from what I've deduced from observations.
They got over their Coryza symptoms pretty quickly mostly via Oxytetracycline & the bird I put with them didn't seem too affected by Coryza, though he developed other symptoms. The birds don't seem to have had recurrences of Coryza, though they do have flare-ups of symptoms I believe are MG & other causes.
Yes, I have a closed flock & yes, I nursemaid at times.

Okay thank you!
I don't mind the nursemaid part, I get so much joy from my chickens.
And I was vegan for years and years, I totally understand why a productive commercial or breeder flock would need to cull for profit, but I don't do this for fun I couldn't just kill my babies.
Obviously I have to have a closed flock too.
I have a question-- I have eggs in the bator literally hatching as we speak. Honestly from the temp fluxes I was doubtful any would hatch. And when I started it was before these others ended up sick. What do I do with them?

 

[PoultryPedia]

I'm afraid it won't be enough medicine. What % of full-size are the chickens? A chicken that's average size (5-6 lbs) is supposed to get 1.0 to 2.0 cc's.
Just trying to help you make sure you can give them the best chance via the meds.

Many medicines are dosed at a different amount per pound of bodyweight for different species. It seems this is likely one such medicine.
If you do a google search on "chickens LA 200 cc" or something similar, I think you'll see other chicken people recommending the higher dose.

Also, the injectible was designed to be active in animals' systems 3 days to reduce the amount of handling & labor involved with giving injections to livestock, & I've been told it is active in birds' systems that long. You may want your vet to double-check that you need to give daily, especially since injection sites are prone to develop swollen lumps sometimes (though perhaps less at small dose amounts?) .

 

[PoultryPedia]

Sounds like some input on the hatch is really needed in a timely manner!
You might want to put up a second thread also in the "Incubating & Hatching Eggs" section on here. Hopefully that could field some quick answers from people with expertise. Maybe put something in the Subject line asking about whether to help out the 2 semi-hatched chicks??

 

[dutchbunny83]

Okay thank you SO MUCH!!!!!
I really appreciate all your knowledge and insight, it's been most helpful!