pneumonia, day 10 with meds and no improvement - what to do?

[technodoll]

No new birds for a while, that's for sure...

Winter is hard enough as it is.

Thanks for the encouragement... at least I have a "path of action" charted out for my roo Sunshine now.

Baby steps

 

[msdoolittle]

I understand your frustration in trying to find help...almost NO ONE here (Texas) will see a chicken or a goat (?), or even if they do, they have no idea what to do, or what they're talking about. If there is any way to do testing, I would since you now have others w/ similar symptoms. If he passes away, and you still are planning on having disease testing done, DON'T freeze him, but refrigerate him, if at all possible (maybe unheated garage where you are? Sure you don't want a sick chicken in your home fridge, but anyway)

Sorry, don't mean to sound like a Negative Nancy, but when I worked @ a vet clinic, we would have people who wanted disease testing done, but they had already frozen the pet, and freezing destroys the cells.

Yes, keeping birds sure can be tough. That's why I'm uber-weird about adding new stock.

Good luck!!!

 

[Ariel301]

How sad for you! I hope your birds get better.

No vet here will treat a chicken either. Or a goat. Sometimes not even horses. We lost our horse while sitting on hold with a vet's office deciding what to do, they were going to have to have us drive to another state to treat the horse, but she fell over dead in the driveway while we waited on the vet to figure out what to do! We took one of our goats in this summer to a horse vet when she was sick, and the vet did not even know what was wrong. She just told us to take the animal home and see what happened, and that no one will treat goats really as treating them is generally more expensive than just letting it die and buying a new one (True of $25 'scrub' goats from around here...but mine was a very high-dollar show quality purebred, definitely worth the price of treatment to me!) Not many vets treat birds of any sort, even parrots. And animals that are usually cheap to replace and not thought of as a 'pet'...like poultry or goats or sheep...are generally overlooked. It's very sad. I have had to learn how to do most veterinary procedures on goats for myself, everything from vaccinating and drawing blood to stomach tubing and C-sections! I don't know what I will do if a chicken gets sick! I can get antibiotics, but without knowing which one to use or how much, or even exactly what is wrong with the bird...

Whatever happened to the good old-fashioned country animal doctor who knew about treating farm animals?

 

[technodoll]

That was exactly the reply I got when I kept asking vet after vet why they would not treat a chicken, even the Avian Vet located in the next city over.

"Chickens aren't worth the money, just buy another one"

WHAT? Who the heck are you to tell me what my pets are worth??

It's sad and disenheartening, as well as being stressful, frustrating and the sense of isolation and helplessness is overwhelming.

DH does NOT want Sunshine to die or be culled, although chickens are my hobby and I am the caretaker, he loves all animals and won't "play god" with their life... He said as long as the bird was alert, bright eyed, eating and pooping well we should wait and see.

I said I'm not having a sick bird in the house all winter in a dog crate, it's not natural and if the bird is genetically weak, there is no cure.

Sigh.

 

[technodoll]

Oh and we just rigged up our 2nd (and last) dog crate in the bathroom - poor puppy doesn't know where to go for naps or food anymore

- and I brought in my red sexlink girl who has the SAME problems as Sunshine, sounds like bronchitis or pneumonia.

All other 21 birds seem fine, perhaps one more sexlink has a runny nose but that's it.

I must be NUTS.

 

[Katy]

Quote:
The old-fashioned country animal vet more than likely didn't ever treat a chicken either. It's only very recently that some people have moved chickens from being a farm animal to a pet.

 

[bubblebean11]

I got some stuff from http://www.revivalanimal.com/store/p/283-Oxine-Fogger-and-Oxine-AH.aspx
revival animal and it cleared that stuff up for my birds. I had some pretty bad. I use it in the water and you can fog it. It is a disinfectant for animals. It is 200 times stronger than bleach. It will kill any type of virus and bacteria. Good stuff I tell ya! You dilute it in water and it goes a long way. They will still be carriers as far as I know but it isnt a life threatening thing. I had quite a few birds with the problem and they are doing great now. I was scared but got it done. You dont need the citric acid because you will need a mask to use it, that stuff is only for extreme disinfectant. Good luck hope this helps. You can look up Oxine AH and you can get info from others who have used it and how they did. Get a plastic syringe and put 1ml per gallon. It can be used all the time, no harm to the birds or eggs. It keeps the waterers from getting slime in them. You can use it to disinfect any part of the coop. you can spray it with the birds in there. When mine were sick I got a spray bottle and put it on the mist setting and would spray it in there face from a distance and within a few days they were happy and breating again. I have never had cleaner waterers.

 

[chookchick]

I don't think chicken get pneumonia from living conditions. I'm pretty sure you have a contagious disease, probably brought in with one of the new introductions (the gift that keeps on giving....). If there is ANY way you can get a necropsy done, it would help you with many of your decisions--what to treat with, whether to cull or not, how contagious is this, carriers a problem, etc... If you lose your rooster, preserve the body like msdoolittle suggested (refrigeration) and see if there is a school, Ag. program or anybody that can do a necropsy for you. There has to be someone up there! I also saw some of the other Canadians on here discussing how to get medicines by mail, you could try PMing some of them like LynnP, Patandchickens, etc...I can't recall who it was unfortunately. Good luck!

 

[technodoll]

Right now we're in a "wait and see" situation...

Sunshine has one more week to show signs of improvement - ANY sign - he's off meds now and if he can't kick this lung fluid on his own, I'm afraid I'll have to give serious thought to ending his life... he cannot survive in the coop like this and he cannot stay in the house forever. There are many winters ahead, too... and I don't want him infecting my flock

I have Josie in the house too since last night (red sexlink hen, awesome layer), she has the same condition as Sunshine but not as bad. I'm giving her a few days of warmth, dry air and rest to see if she improves since she has a good immune system, never been sick before.

The other 21 birds are NOT sick, just a bit cold and bored.

must look at the big picture and not despair

 

[Happy Chicken Mama]

I agree with the Olive Leaf. We use if if we (the humans in the house) think we are getting an infection... works like a charm 90% of the time!

I would be curious to know how it works for your bird... let us know if you use it and if it helps. We just get ours from the health food store.