Pullets with watery and or swollen eyes and wet noses

[MamaHynne]

My chickens in the coop range in age from about 16 weeks to 5 weeks.

This weekend, I noticed one of my chickens (from the game hen flock) sleeping a lot, tucking it's head beneath its wing and sort of isolating itself from the others. It also seemed to gasp and extend its head while sleeping too. I happened to notice it's poo was very runny. I made a mental note to check on it often throughout the weekend. Its eye began to swell, and get red. When I went to pick it up, it practically collapsed in my hands. We decided to put it down because it just seemed to be fading.

This afternoon, I noticed more pullets from the same flock have watery eyes, only one has swelling so far. They also have a wet nasal discharge. A couple of these birds were resting on the perch and began to extend their necks and open their mouths like they were gasping for air. When I went to pick them up, they were full of energy, began eating and drinking with no problems. I noticed their poo was sort of a mustardy color--still a bit loose, even for a chicken.

The other young chicks in the same coop all seem fine. None have watery eyes, none have loose poos, none have runny noses.

I keep the pen, water, food and bedding clean. The bedding is hay for now.

I'm concerned that the gamehen pullets' mother was a carrier for some respiratory disease, and how to prevent the other chicks from catching this. I don't know the first thing about vaccinations or how to disinfect a brooding house/pen. Please advise what I should do. I have 22 birds in the large pen and would hate to lose them all, but I also have 10 day old biddies inside my house, separated from the others that I've planned to integrate once they are ready. I just want a health feathered family.

Please HELP!

 

[froggiesheins]

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044#TABLE_2 This is a great thread on respritory infections. There are alot of posts on the forum on this problem. First you have to quarentine the affected bird/s. Once you figure out which problem it appears to be [from the thread] then you can go about treating it. All the chickens needs to be treated as weel, even if they are not showing signs. I wish I could be more help, but this is a good start.
As a footnote; I have a roo with chronic [as near as I can figure] bronchitis, and use antibiotics on him. A BIG help is keeping the affected birds WARM. My roo has to come in the house everynight, and I live in Southern Ca. Just a little chill in the air will set it off.

 

[schellie69]

If you have another one that dies you can get a necropsy then you know what you are dealing with, see if there is a state ag vet hospital that could help. I would make sure to quarantine the birds that are sick and make sure that you take care of your other chickens first then take care of the sick ones wear different clothes and shoes to the sick ones pen so this does not spread. Maybe even some blood test would help. so sorry you are going through this hopefully you find out what it is.

 

[TarHeelBlue]

Froggiesheins - thanks for the link. That will be a great help to me and a lot of others at BYC.!

 

[MamaHynne]

Thank you all for your advice. I spoke with an avian vet today because all 10 of my game hen flock were showing signs of serious respiratory distress as well as swollen, bubbly eyes. He's a friend of the family, so he basically advised me to cull the flock to relieve the suffering of these birds. He also advised my treating the remaining 14 birds with Terramycin to hopefully prevent outbreak. The 14 left have all been vaccinated against LT and Mareks, so we may be all right.

I cleaned out the pen, dug up the dirt floor of it to 4 inches deep, sprinkled Lyme all around and replaced the dirt and covered it with fresh flake pine shavings. All water and food dispensers have been soaked for one hour in bleach and rinsed in hot water. It's been an exhausting day and all I can do is give the other birds the meds and pray that we've headed this disease off at the pass. I burned my flipflops I wore into the pen along with the previous bedding and the deceased birds.

I'm whooped. It's been a long, sad, exhausting day.

I hope everyone's feather families stay healthy and happy. Blessings to all.

 

[chickengrl]

Wow, really sorry. It sounds like your vet friend gave you good advice. The illness sounded a whole lot like ILT and they would end up being carriers of the disease if they survived. It is really a horrible disease. If your little chicks were vaccinated for it hopefully they will be fine. Did you have them tested to find out for sure? Not that it matters at this point, since most respiratory diseases leave them carriers anyway. We had ILT in our flock, we chose not to cull and keep a closed flock. The only issue is we have new chicks and we are vaccinating when old enough, but we are honestly flirting with disaster doing it this way. The virus is extremely hard not to pass on. It can even be in your hair, your nostrils, and can move on dust in the wind. We have so far been lucky, and we hope we can keep a handle on it until we get them old enough to vaccinate. I hope the rest of your birds stay healthy for you!!

 

[MamaHynne]

I'm really hoping we are in the clear since the other chicks aren't exhibiting symptoms. The last thing I want is to host carriers of this heinous disease. Though it was an tough decision, it was completely humane to put the sick chickens down. Just gonna keep praying that the others don't get it

 

[froggiesheins]

Quote:
So sorry you had to go that route, BUMMER.