Pullet with CRD: not getting better

[Grenfell]

Bit of a background story: After some advice on what to do. I have been dealing with on and off respiratory infections since February. I bought a Plymouth Rock (6mths at the time) start of Feb, and she came down with it. Treated her and got her better. We then had bought two pekins (bought March, 6 mths old) and a sussex (bought March, 4mths old. Once they came into the pen then they all got respiratory, this time the Plymouth was really sick and ended up on doxy from the vet. All was good until the Plymouth first started a tiny cough in May ,every so often and now all the others have that cough. One had bubbles in the eye, rest are having the odd cough or sneeze, nothing like before. I will say we’ve had lots of hot days followed by storms/rain. I’ve finally gotten them them better about 3 weeks ago after having them on oxytetracycline and breathe-ezy. Now my Sussex pullet has come down again with the CRD symptoms, I’ve had her quarantined for just over two weeks now. She’s wheezing, has clear nasal discharge, coughing up clear muck, she also sounds like her wheeze is ‘wet’. She’s coughing. I’ve had her on 250mg tablet of oxytetracycline a day, breathe-ezy is being fogged. I started her on amoxycilian 125mg once a day, 5 days ago. Still no improvement to the wheezing/mucous. She’s eating her pellet food and drinking small amounts. Is there anything else I can do? I’m just about done with chickens I never had any problems like this when I had chooks in the country. (We live in Australia

 

[dawg53]

I'm assuming that the vet told you that it was CRD in your hen. CRD is Mycoplasma
Gallisepticum (MG) and is very contagious to other birds. It sounds like you have a severe strain. I agree that it's typical symptoms of MG. The MG bacteria eventually becomes resistant to antibiotics requiring more powerful antibiotics to keep the disease in check. Survivors become carriers of the disease for life as well.
Sick birds dont lay eggs and even if they did, eggs would have to be tossed in the garbage due to egg withdrawal periods from the antibiotics. MG can be passed through eggs to hatching chicks, if they survive.
Introducing chickens into a flock from different sources is risky and biosecurity measures must be taken. It's best to buy chicks from a hatchery.
The rest of your birds will get the disease as you've seen and I know you are fed up pumping antibiotics into them. It would be best to cull all of them.
The good news about MG is that you can wait a few weeks and repopulate with healthy chicks, preferably from a hatchery like I mentioned. MG cannot survive in the environment more than 3 days.
This will give you ample time to disinfect feeders and waterers, inside the coop, nests boxes and roosts. Dont worry about the soil, the sun and environment will do its job killing the MG bacteria.