Rescue Chickens (and maybe a rescue turkey?) with severe health issues....help!

[cassvillechick]

Thank you for the resources. We put them all on anti-biotics in the water and a good diet. They all have improved a little. They have also been dusted because we found parasites.

4 seemed like it was just sneezing so we separtated them and they have been on antibiotics for a week now and the sneezing has subsided. My question for them is can we ever intergrate them with the healthy flock that we have. People keep saying that even without symptoms they will get our healthy chickens sick, any thoughts on that?

The chicken with the eye has been getting ointment in it and the swelling has gone down but it's still gurggling when breathing. She eats but we might have to have her put down. The problem is we can't find a vet that knows anything about chickens anywhere near us and we don't know enough.

The chicken with the leg and the turkey are doing well. Feathers are growing back. We will try the cat food!

Thank you for your help.

 

[GoodwinMaine]

Curious about the cat food... we feed our cats Nutro dry "chicken" flavor food. Would it be beneficial if we have a sick chicken?

 

[soler]

well. The extra protein in it helps with feathers regrowth - so if you have an injured chicken. that has lost feathers and needs a little kick in that department. Mine love the can types. In fact, it has to be the single food the love the most out of it all. There is a stray cat that comes in the evening sometimes, and i was leaving out the can food before they went back to coop, and OMG, once they discovered it, everytime they see me with a can in my hands they almost attack me (now i leave the food after dark). So it's nice to know there is a food they will go crazy over if they are sick and struggling with appetite. The older birds seem a lot more drawn to it than younger ones.

In the treat chart somewhere on this board, it says some ingredients can be toxic, when cat food is fed every day to chicks for a couple of weeks. So i would just give a bit as a supplement once every couple of weeks, or during moulting/specific sickness. I think since i started giving them some occasionally their feathers look even better.

 

[mandelyn]

Yeah just a little bit of cat food as a supplement, not a main diet source. But you just can't find poultry feed with 35% protein.

How are they doing now? 2 days can make a big difference!

If they have a virus, the antibiotics will treat the the symptoms and the snotty noses will clear up, but they will remain carriers for the virus after treatments when they are seemingly healthy. That's why you'd be risking your healthy flock if you put them together later.

If it was an infection, then the antibiotics will cure them and they can move to the other coop. It's just that antibiotics do not cure viruses, they only treat the symptoms.

 

[Abirdbrain]

Take a deep breath and read this. You are very foolish to harbor sick birds and bring them home , because you wish to help. With all the noble intentions, you are asking for ABSOLUTE FAILURE, by cross contaminating your good birds. From your boots, to unwashed hands, right into the food or water, you will do it. Cull and dispose of ALL THE SICK BIRDS AS SOON AS THEY APPEAR. Mites and skin conditions could be treated the same way, but is not as bad. Birds dont live all that long, so recovery must be swift, or not worth the time.

I bought 10 birds from another grower to give me some RI Reds. We brought them home and put them with some 20 more we raised from chicks. Well short story, the older birds had runny nose, and we had to move that tractor out back. In two months we lost 15 birds, and the others hacked and gurgled. Eggs fell from one each to 3 a day for all. The last five were buried together, and we flame torched the coop with a weed burner, and then sterilized the rest of the tractor with soap/ bleach, and let set for 2 months before putting birds in.

it is not worth the heartbreak, or the extensive work to try to save somebodies lepers, period. We got eye worm, and swelled eye, and I could not save the bird. I move on to a better deal.

It is much more fun and easier to raise some new shix, than battle a birds illness, and lose, sometimes more than just that bird.

Dont get me wrong, We have favorites, and eaters too. Raven, likes to sit on mom's shoulder around the coop. Such antics are fun. Culling a mob of sick birds is not.

We have about 80 birds now. it is difernet when you name a couple and watch them intently. Pet, or livestock? Big diference. Losing sight of that distinction, will cost you emotionally.

Sorry to be blunt. I ride the same coaster, up and down.

 

[soler]

Thank you for the resources. We put them all on anti-biotics in the water and a good diet. They all have improved a little. They have also been dusted because we found parasites.

4 seemed like it was just sneezing so we separtated them and they have been on antibiotics for a week now and the sneezing has subsided. My question for them is can we ever intergrate them with the healthy flock that we have. People keep saying that even without symptoms they will get our healthy chickens sick, any thoughts on that?

The chicken with the eye has been getting ointment in it and the swelling has gone down but it's still gurggling when breathing. She eats but we might have to have her put down. The problem is we can't find a vet that knows anything about chickens anywhere near us and we don't know enough.

The chicken with the leg and the turkey are doing well. Feathers are growing back. We will try the cat food!

Thank you for your help.

I wonder if there is a way to test what disease they might be carrying. If they are making a quick turn around it might well be that it was just a little cold. When you read description for the really toxic diseases, newcastle, coryza, etc etc they sound far more violent and super deadly.

One thing i did here is to call the local department of agriculture, and got info on common poultry diseases in my area. I also got the name of a poultry vet that works with them, and spoke to her directly. This was very helpful and she had a wealth of information. She even knew specific commercial farms that suffered certain outbreaks and where this was. In my conversation with her, in NY specifically, it seems that most bad respiratory illnesses, like infectious laryngotracheitis, newcastle, coryaza etc are very localized and really mostly happen in very large commercial farms. In any case, the question you'd want to ask is if there is a way to test for what the birds carry. And if you put one down, send it in for necropsy and then you'll know for sure.

You are keeping your birds completely separate, and being careful, so i don't necessarily think you will have a problem with the others. You just don't have the full information now to merge them if they get better.

The one thing you need to check is if it's ok to keep a turkey with chicken, i read somewhere they can get blackhead from chickens, but i know nothing about it.

 

[cassvillechick]

Update: Our rescue chickens are doing much better. All but one has gotten better and have found new homes with great families. We did lose one. Thank you all for your help.

 

[Lupa Duende]

Good work! Hopefully the breeder will smarten up.