Pullet illness symptoms

[Sherry]

I obtained 7 RIR pullets from a lady about 3-4 weeks ago. I have no idea where she got them.
One has died, another seems to be well on her way to dying.
The first became weak, uncoordinated and died within a day of my noticing the problem, this was last week.
This second one, is very weak, very uncoordinated. If I set her on her feet she stands for quite awhile, kind of rocks back and for to keep her balance, then doesn't seem to move at all. When I go back to check on her, every couple of hours, she will be laying down sometimes one of her wings will be spread and she's unable to pull it back as if she fell and landed in that position. I think she's dead but then I see her shivering as if she's cold. If I hold her in a standing position she is able to move her head to eat and drink.
The other five pullets seem fine except I've noticed a couple of them have a very wet, phlegmy sounding cough.
What is this?
Should I just cull all of them?
The good news is these 7 were quarantined my regular flock.
Any help greatly appreciated.

 

[dlhunicorn]

mgiht be MG... if the lady is close to you I would take the birds back (and hopefully ask for your money back) .... I would not integrate with my healthy flock
If the lady was not close to you or came through the post then a lot of things can happen (including stress) that might account for this and it would be hard to directly correlate to being the previous owners fault (MG often does not rear its ugly head until stress moments > even a short distance move with a change in their feed could be enough stress to bring it out)

 

[threehorses]

Agreed with dlhunicorn!

If you do keep them, you must keep them very very separate from your flock. And honestly, I'd highly recommend getting one of the birds tested to see what it has. You have a few options in that direction.

First you could take the bird to a vet who will agree to do a "culture and sensitivity" for you. Ask before you take the bird in - make sure they will. You will want to ask for it by name and demand it. Often vets will treat on symptoms, but there are so many antibacterial resistances now (and vertically transmittable diseases) that it's not worth the risk. You need to know exactly what the bacteria IS by name - not just what it isn't.

In a C&S, the vet will swab the bird's throat and/or other secretions. They grow the bacteria out on a plate and then identify it exactly. You'll get a name like M. gallisepticum, etc. Not just a general description. Then they grow that bacteria again on a plate that has little discs that have antibiotics in them. If the bacteria refuse to grow near a disc, that's the specific antibiotic that will work for that specific illness. No spending money on antibiotics that don't work, no guessing about whether or not your birds will need to be culled. One bird can be tested in this manner for the whole flock.

On the other hand, you could call the state ag colleges and/or local ag agent and get them to come out and test to make sure you don't have the major illnesses. They will NOT diagnose, they will NOT recommend a treatment. If you lose another bird, I would definitely arrange ahead of time to take it in and have it tested in this way to rule out the major contagious diseases for the sake of your flock.

In the mean time, wear different clothes and shoes between flocks. Do your healthy bird first, handle the ill ones last.

And do try to get a refund - but I'd still take one to get it tested since they've already been there.

Please let us know how it goes.