Questions about respiratory disease

[WillowMoonWyandottes]

I’m currently having respiratory disease symptoms with my chickens and I’m planning to send one to my state lab when I get the chance but for the time being I’m keeping a closed flock, I wanted to see if anyone might know what it could be and if your chickens have had respiratory disease what was your experience with it?

I currently have around 50 chickens in total all from NPIP certified breeders and one day one of my 3 month old cockerels started having rattled breathing, I culled immediately. Couple days later my 1 year old rooster had runny nose, watery eyes and sneezing. I realized it had already spread so I decided not to cull anymore and see how bad it would get. The 1 year old rooster got better in 3 days. Then a 3 month old pullet got rattled breathing, sneezing, coughing and she has been doing this for about a month with no improvement. The rest of my flock have just been sneezing for around a month and my week old chicks are starting to show symptoms including a runny nose and sneezing but nothing any more serious than that yet. I have had no deaths so far related to the respiratory problems other than the one I culled. Has anyone experienced anything similar? If so what was the diagnosis?

I also have a couple of questions about MG and IB.

If a chick is hatched from parents that have MG when will they start showing symptoms of the disease?

If my chickens are diagnosed with IB how long do I have to keep a closed flock before the disease isn’t contagious anymore?

How long can IB and MG stay in an area after the infected birds have been removed?

If a chicken has IB can the symptoms reappear when they are stressed or is that only with MG?

 

[Myrshine]

I’ll be glad to answer any questions you have!

Q: Has anyone experienced anything similar? If so what was the diagnosis?

A: I have experienced MG, Infectious Coryza, Fowl Cholera AND Infectious Laryngotracheitis. I’d say that MG has the least amount of deaths compared to the other diseases with a 5%-20% death rate depending on the age and how severe the bird has the infection. MG is the most common cause of respiratory infections of poultry worldwide, in fact, it’s so common, that it is assumed that anyone who has a flock of their own, has it in their soil, air, etc. It’s overall REALLY hard to avoid getting MG in your flock, especially if you have neighbors or anyone in your area close by that has MG in their flocks too because it can be carried by wild birds in the area, it’s airborne as well up to 6 miles and you could go into any store or place outside your flock and bring

Q: If a chick is hatched from parents that have MG when will they start showing symptoms of the disease?

A: They’ll only start to show symptoms when they become stressed, otherwise, they’ll be healthy happy chickies!

Q: If my chickens are diagnosed with IB how long do I have to keep a closed flock before the disease isn’t contagious anymore?

A: You’d have to kee your flock closed for more than 6 months, starting from the LAST infection that a bird had. If any relapse, then you’ll have to restart.

Q: How long can IB and MG stay in an area after the infected birds have been removed?

A: I’m not absolutely certain on how long the IB virus can survive in the soil, feces or feathers, but to take a guess and to make sure that you know that it’s gone for good, would be waiting 11 weeks. As for MG, it cannot survive out of a host for more than a week or 2. The MG bacteria is easily destroyed in direct sunlight with temperatures over 72F. Using Oxine or Bleach can easily destroy

Q: If a chicken has IB can the symptoms reappear when they are stressed or is that only with MG?

A: Not the same strain of the initial virus that started it, but since viruses rapidly change, different strains can be created, creating the risk of re-infection of a new strain of it. As for MG, it’s chronic, so whenever birds are stressed, they’ll most likely show symptoms again.

I hope this helps you with your questions! If you have anymore, feel free to ask!

 

[Eggcessive]

If you have not seen bubbles/foam in an eye, swollen eyelids or pinkeye, you may be seeing infectious bronchitis. From what I have read, infectious bronchitis virus can make survivors carriers for 5 months up to a year. Some who don’t show symptoms could also have the disease. IB virus spreads through most of the flock eventually, while only some may show symptoms of MG. When my flock once had IB as young hens, probably brought in by wild birds, I had to wait a year after the last chicken recovered to add or hatch any new chickens. IB virus is limited to around a month with symptoms. Sometimes it can be complicated by secondary or other respiratory diseases. Some hens may suffer later reproductive disorders or egg shell abnormalities as an effect of IB.

MG (mycoplasma gallisepticum) is alive only 2-3 days in the environment, but some respiratory diseases can remain longer in frozen droppings on the ground. When young birds have become sick from MG passed through hatching eggs, it can show up around 2-3 weeks of age.

 

[WillowMoonWyandottes]

I hope this helps you with your questions! If you have anymore, feel free to ask!

Thank you!

I had a flock a couple years ago become infected with MG, I never got them tested but I’m very certain that’s what it was. Any time they got stressed for example moving them to a different pen or having to catch them, they would show symptoms again like eye bubbles, raspy breathing and sneezing. I also had some deaths. I culled my entire flock and started over 6 months later which are the chickens I have now. But this time the symptoms seem less severe than last time so I was really hoping it was IB instead. Hopefully I can take one to my state lab soon to get a proper diagnosis.

 

[Myrshine]

Probably the best thing that you can do

 

[WillowMoonWyandottes]

I wanted to give an update, I just dropped off one of my chickens at my state lab finally. I will update again when I get my results.

 

[WillowMoonWyandottes]

The results came back and they said the bird I sent was a healthy bird and was negative for MG, MS, Infectious Laryngotracheitis and Avian Influenza. It doesn’t look like they tested for IB.

 

[WillowMoonWyandottes]

The bird I sent wasn’t physically to sick, just sneezing but he had been around my actively sick birds so I assumed if it was MG he would have it even if he wasn’t showing severe symptoms. I don’t have any physically very sick birds at the moment just runny nose and sneezing. Not sure what to think about this. I’m guessing IB since they didn’t test for that.. I still don’t feel like I got a diagnosis… but I’m very happy for them to say he was a healthy bird!

 

[Myrshine]

Maybe it is not a disease? Could it be something an environmental irritant? Are the hens still laying? Any other symptoms?

 

[WillowMoonWyandottes]

Maybe it is not a disease? Could it be something an environmental irritant? Are the hens still laying? Any other symptoms?

My hens stopped laying for around 2 weeks and were laying deformed eggs but not the wrinkled eggs you see with IB, just random deformities. A hen I got the day before I realized they were sick got sick 3 days after adding to my flock so I was thinking it is contagious. I’ve had 3 chicks around 2 weeks old die mysteriously recently that were skinny, sneezing with a runny nose but I didn’t see anything else wrong with them, treated them with Corid because I thought they had coccidia but it didn’t help. Also my older chickens around 4 months old are having coccidia like diarrhea, very watery, mucus looking. I’ve been treating them with Corid for 2 weeks with no improvement. It was very dusty before they became sick because we hadn’t had rain in a long time and the floor of their pens is sand, that’s the only thing I can think of. But what ever it is it’s contagious bc it even effected the chicks that were inside eventually that weren’t exposed to the dusty conditions.