Please help !

[mdmccormick]

So about 4 days ago we bought 5 new hens about 10 weeks old to add to our flock ( we already had 5 birds in the coop) and today we noticed that at least 2 of the birds that we already had have been showing signs of sickness. We have 3 copper marans, a silkie, and a mille and both of the birds showing symptoms are marans.

One of them has a buggery nose, a swollen eye, and phlegm in its mouth. The other is making some really weird breathing noises that remind me of those machines that detect radiation..kinda fast clicking sounds?

I've removed all three marans and have them out in the yard right now, I've been researching and found some information about a disease called MG...I'm scared that i'm about to have to lose my flock of birds...any insight or advice would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. none of the new birds have shown any symptoms, only the 3 marans that we have had for 9 months.

 

[Pyxis]

It sounds like the new birds were carriers of a respiratory disease. They have now spread it to your original birds who are showing symptoms. You can treat them, but they will carry the disease for life and will pass it to any new birds you bring in, and they will have flare ups and will need to be treated whenever they endure stress, such as during molts, when coming into lay, etc. You also can never give away or sell any of your birds, or sell any eggs to other people for hatching, since some respiratory diseases can be transferred through the eggs and the chicks will hatch with the disease. If you want to be sure of what disease your birds have you can cull one and send it out for testing, or you may be able to get a vet to run a blood test for you.

The alternative to what I said above is to cull the entire flock, wait a few months, and start over. If you do this, in the future quarantine any new birds you bring in to avoid this happening again.

 

[mdmccormick]

This is so overwhelming, I don't know if I could go through with killing them, are the eggs safe to eat?

 

[Pyxis]

Yes, the eggs are safe to eat

 

[mdmccormick]

Ok, if the eggs are safe to eat then there is no way I could kill them, I've raised them since chicks...except for the new ones...so now what do I need to do about the sickly ones? are they going to get over the symptoms or do I need to intervene with some sort of antibiotics or something?

 

[mdmccormick]

the one with the swollen eye is pretty lethargic...she just stands still and doesn't move much.

 

[Pyxis]

You'll want to treat them. If you think it's MG treat it with tetracycline or Denagard, which is technically a pig medicine but works great for MG and can be ordered on Amazon.

 

[mdmccormick]

ok, i'll have to go to the feed store before work tomorrow and see if they carry those, thanks for the advice