Pullet has snotty beak

[MadabtChickens]

My light Sussex pullet has snot coming out of her nostrils really bad. She is still running around and doing all her regular stuff, but now she's making a clicking sound which I'm sure means she's having breathing problems. Should I separate her from the others? Is there anything I can give her? As of now everybody else looks fine.

 

[Oakieridge]

You can go one of two ways: Medication - Tylan 50 can be gotten at most feed stores. We prefer injectable. We also like Denagard, we now treat with it if anything seems iffy. Or cull, this is what we ultimately had to do with any bird that had respitory stuff. We had 3 come down with runny noses and one got an infected eye. We culled, treated the rest with Duramycin for 10 days and then the Denagard came in so after 5 days off the Duramycin 10 we did a 7 day treatment of Denagard. We haven't had an issue with anything since. But you will need to watch the rest of the birds because respitory stuff is usually highly contangious.

 

[MadabtChickens]

I just sent my mother to the feed store, so we'll see what she comes back with. I will call the vet and see what they have also. I have her in a xl dog crate right now. Hopefully she'll settle down and rest. She's one of my few social chickens, so I will do all I can to get her better.

 

[speckledhen]

Does she smell really bad around the face? That looks disgusting. Could be Coryza or Mycoplasmosis or something else.

If it's a virus, antibiotics will do nothing. Just know that even if you treat it and/or it gets better, she will not be cured if it's one of the aforementioned diseases or a couple of others that are highly contagious. She will remain a carrier. You can't know what she has without testing, though. Perhaps call the state poultry lab in your state and consult the vet on duty for more definitive answers. Regular vets rarely know what they're doing in regard to chickens.

 

[klmclain1]

Speckledhen, is this one of those times when a humidifier with Oxine in the water might help??? Or no?

 

[MadabtChickens]

Well, these guys have always smelled like death since they moved up to the coop so going off of that I don't smell anything different or worse around her beak. I got the duramycine and am treating everybody with it. Hopefully Belle is improving in 3 days or it's off to the vet with us. We have a country vet so he should be able to help us. If not then I will try to find the poultry lab.

 

[speckledhen]

Kl, misting with Oxine may help symptoms since it kills viruses, fungi and bacteria, but it won't remove the disease from the body if it's a carrier type disease and she says they've "smelled like death" since they moved to the coop? Really, that bad? Regular everyday smells aren't like that in a healthy flock. It's not normal in the least.

Where did you get these birds anyway? If you bought them already started as youngsters, you bought sick, carrier birds, I'm betting. My advice, my honest advice, is not to treat her, but to euthanize her and any others with symptoms like hers. I won't ever advise anyone to treat this. Sorry to say that and I hate always being a bucket of cold water, but keeping a bird in that condition will set you up to always have a sick flock. People think that's harsh, but so is the world of communicable poultry diseases.

 

[klmclain1]

Thanks for the info - I also questioned the "smelled like death" issue. There's something just wrong with that. I suspect something has been horribly wrong since day one.

 

[MadabtChickens]

I got them when they were 2 weeks old. They are now 3 months old and this is the first time any of them have looked unhealthy and none of my other birds have been sick either. I just went up to the coop and picked every bird up to check their beaks and only one other one smells like death, but not as bad as this girl. Also, it's not in their beaks. Until she doesn't improve and I get a diagnosis I will not be euthanizing her or any of my other birds in the flock. Thanks for all the help everybody! My next step will be the vet if these meds don't help. Also, I never planned on breeding my birds so the sickness will end here for this flock. My only change is I will be culling my roosters rather than finding a new home for them.

 

[speckledhen]

Well, let us know what the vet tells you. We just wanted you to understand that the smell was not at all normal and was indicative of a very serious issue. I see that people's hackles are raised when I say my advice is to euthanize, like I have insulted them in some horrible way. They ask for my advice and I give them the best advice my conscience will allow, based on what I know of communicable diseases of poultry and the carrier nature of most of those diseases. I can do no less than that.

Even if you get started chicks, they can come as carriers of disease, just to be clear for the future. Some think that chicks cannot come to them ill, but that is not true. A member some of us know well put a one-week-old chick that someone gave her son into the flock and was battling infectious Coryza for a couple of years afterward for her mistake of not quarantining it so symptoms could come to the surface.

Good luck!