Rescue chicken help

[Kgroot]

I'm new to chickens and thankfully until today have never had a problem with accquiring a sick chicken. We rescued a roo and a pullet from a hoarder who had over 200 chickens in a small coop. He looks pretty good a little bit of a sneeze but bright eyed and pretty happy. She's in pretty rough shape. She's got a swollen eye some major raspy breathing a lots of coughing. We're trying VETrx poultry. Is there anything else I can do for her?

 

[Kgroot]

First of all, kudos to you for trying to help these poor animals! It sounds like they were living in abhorrent conditions.

When I rescued two roosters someone abandoned on the highway, I put them in quarantine and then wasn't sure what to do with them. I wasn't prepared for them at all, but couldn't leave them starving and scared on the highway. I talked to a vet who said to test them for worms, coccidiosis, and Mycoplasma gallisepticum. We never did test them for Mg because we decided we were going to keep them anyway (I also was lucky they showed no symptoms of illness, although that doesn't mean they're not sick). I quarantined the birds for a couple of months to make sure they didn't show signs of illness. Again, no guarantee they're not carriers of something, but it's one of those decisions we all have to make when we pick up rescue birds - kill them or take a chance. We took a chance, and luckily, we haven't had problems so far.

Before making my final decision on keeping or killing the roosters, I contacted a poultry sanctuary for advice at United Poultry Concerns. Pyxis is right that it is incredibly risky to take these birds in, but sanctuaries do deal with these things all the time. If I were in your position, I would contact this sanctuary (or others) and see how they deal with new birds that are sick. You may still decide to kill them, but at least you've talked to someone who has devoted their life to saving rescue animals and has surely come across this problem. Here is the contact info for the one I contacted:
[email protected]
757-678-7875
The woman there responded very quickly and is very helpful. She has run this sanctuary for years and has a lot of experience.

If you do decide to keep them, make sure to give them a good physical - check closely for mites and lice if you haven't already done so.

Thank you so much. Im gonna spend a few days trying to see if we can go to the vet. If the vet says I can get them healthy then we're gonna work hard. But if it's super contagious and she doesn't think theyll have a good life then ill make the decisions espcially with two other new birds coming on Monday. I don't want to get them sick too.

 

[Bougiechicks]

Baytril will treat the symptoms of some of these diseases, but it doesn't mean they're cured. Unless yours happened to have either aspergillosis, which is a fungus and can't be treated with Baytril, or infectious bronchitis, which is a virus and also can't be treated, they are still carriers of whatever disease they had. Even with infectious bronchitis they are still carriers for up to a year after the symptoms stop.

Also, Baytril is forbidden for use in food-producing poultry per the FDA. I'm not saying don't use it if that's what you feel you need to do, but I wanted to put that information out there for the OP.

Thanks! Ours are just pets and we don’t use them for anything else, so it works for us. It was amazing to see them basically come back to life after we treated them

 

[Pyxis]

Do you have other chickens or poultry? If so, you're not going to like this advice, but you really should cull these birds unless you're fine with all your birds being sick forever. You're describing a respiratory disease, and nearly all of them can never be cured. You can treat them with medicine to clear up the symptoms for now, but they will get sick again every time they're feeling stressed or when their immune system is a little down, such as during a molt, when coming into lay, when it starts to get cold, etc.

And they will pass this disease to every other bird you have, so they will all get sick as well. You would also have to close your flock, meaning once a bird enters your property, it never leaves. That means no selling or giving away adults or chicks, or even giving eggs to others to hatch, since some of these diseases the chicks will actually get from their parents before they're even born and they hatch infected.

If you are okay with all of the above, then you can try treating them. Tylan 50 can be purchased at Tractor Supply and might clear up the symptoms for now. You would want to always have more on hand for when they have future flare ups of symptoms.

Hopefully you've had these two in quarantine away from the rest of your birds; otherwise, they may have already been infected.

 

[Pyxis]

Bring them to the vet! We put ours on an antibiotic eye drop and baytril and they were fine!

Baytril will treat the symptoms of some of these diseases, but it doesn't mean they're cured. Unless yours happened to have either aspergillosis, which is a fungus and can't be treated with Baytril, or infectious bronchitis, which is a virus and also can't be treated, they are still carriers of whatever disease they had. Even with infectious bronchitis they are still carriers for up to a year after the symptoms stop.

Also, Baytril is forbidden for use in food-producing poultry per the FDA. I'm not saying don't use it if that's what you feel you need to do, but I wanted to put that information out there for the OP.

 

[Rachel TW]

First of all, kudos to you for trying to help these poor animals! It sounds like they were living in abhorrent conditions.

When I rescued two roosters someone abandoned on the highway, I put them in quarantine and then wasn't sure what to do with them. I wasn't prepared for them at all, but couldn't leave them starving and scared on the highway. I talked to a vet who said to test them for worms, coccidiosis, and Mycoplasma gallisepticum. We never did test them for Mg because we decided we were going to keep them anyway (I also was lucky they showed no symptoms of illness, although that doesn't mean they're not sick). I quarantined the birds for a couple of months to make sure they didn't show signs of illness. Again, no guarantee they're not carriers of something, but it's one of those decisions we all have to make when we pick up rescue birds - kill them or take a chance. We took a chance, and luckily, we haven't had problems so far.

Before making my final decision on keeping or killing the roosters, I contacted a poultry sanctuary for advice at United Poultry Concerns. Pyxis is right that it is incredibly risky to take these birds in, but sanctuaries do deal with these things all the time. If I were in your position, I would contact this sanctuary (or others) and see how they deal with new birds that are sick. You may still decide to kill them, but at least you've talked to someone who has devoted their life to saving rescue animals and has surely come across this problem. Here is the contact info for the one I contacted:
[email protected]
757-678-7875
The woman there responded very quickly and is very helpful. She has run this sanctuary for years and has a lot of experience.

If you do decide to keep them, make sure to give them a good physical - check closely for mites and lice if you haven't already done so.

 

[Kgroot]

Thank you all for the advice and sucess stories . Hopefully these two make it but we will see. The two other girls are from a friend so I know they are healthy at least. I don't regret getting them out of there even if it's only for a week if they can't be saved. At least they'll be in a well ventilated area with treats fresh water and fun things to find in the aspen. (Because I'm a sucker)

 

[Kgroot]

I do have other chickens and quaik but these two are in quarantine. Shoot. I haven't much experience with diseases that they could have so this was new. Thank you so much for the advice. I was really hoping that it wasn't too terrible. So sad.

 

[Bougiechicks]

Bring them to the vet! We put ours on an antibiotic eye drop and baytril and they were fine!

 

[MissChick@dee]

Sorry for your situation.
Please remember to wash and sanitize your hands.