Respiratory Crud?

[ClydesdaleSocks]

One of my coops only has 4 chickens in it (2 Buffs (2.5 yrs), 2 SLW (6 months old, 1 pullet, 1 roo)). On Wednesday of last week (Oct 1), I noticed one of my Buffs sounded like she had a stuffy nose, so I pulled her out of the coop and locked her in our large brooder. On Friday, my roo also had the same stuffy nose, so I threw the Buff back in the coop and started them all on Oxytetracycline powder in their water. On Sunday, the OTHER Buff started sounding really bad (wheezing while breathing, sneezing, and wet coughing) and went off eating. I moved her into the house. I've been force feeding her 5mL of the Oxytetracycline water 3x a day and a mixture of yogurt/chicken feed 2x a day because she's not eating or drinking. On Tuesday (Oct 7) she seemed to be on the upswing. You couldn't hear her breath, she ate a bunch of her feed on her own, and was even taking mealworms and scratching about her cage. However by that night, she seemed to take a downturn, you could hear her wheezing while breathing and she was ignoring mealworm treat offers, her waddle/comb is pale, and her comb is starting to droop. Wednesday she was back to not eating or drinking and just sitting in her cage so I went and got some Duramycin injectable. I injected 0.6mL SQ at about 4:45pm yesterday. Force fed her another meal of yogurt/layer mash last night too. She seems worse this morning. :-/ Loud wheezing, lethargic, not eating/drinking, pale/droopy comb.

Any suggestions where to go from here? Should I wait out the Duramycin? I can give her that injection again on Saturday. I got the 0.6mL dosage from another BYC post that found a dosage conversion of 0.25mL per 2.2lbs of body weight for Duramycin - she weighs 5.4 lbs. All the other chickens are completely fine now. Once I started the Oxytet water, their congestion cleared right up - in fact I plan on letting them free range tomorrow because it's the last day of the antibiotics. So she should logically have the same thing they have - not sure why it's not responding like theirs did....any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Eggcessive]

She may have developed air sacculitis, which is one of the secondary infections that can occur with the many respiratory diseases. The oxytetracycline will sometimes help to prevent it, but she may have just been to sick. A lot of it depends on what disease she has, too, and without getting her tested or a necropsy done, it is guesswork. Have you seen any swelling of the eyes or face, any bad odor, or yellow thick nasal secretions? Infectious bronchitis, mycoplasma (MG or CRD,) coryza, and ILT are the common diseases. Any of those can be complicated by secondary infections (sometimes by each other) of bacteria such as E.coli and others. I haven't treated this sort of thing, but I would at least get some Tylan 50 injectable to give for 5 days, or I would ask a vet to give her Baytril (which is banned in chickens, by the way.) Baytril can be purchased online and given orally. I've never used it, but the 10% is what most recommend. Sorry you are dealing with this, but remember that your flock are all carriers now, so you must not sell or give away birds or hatching eggs. Here is a link to read about the diseases: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

 

[ClydesdaleSocks]

She has no discharge or puffy/swollen eyes or odor. The only outward signs (besides the wheezy breathing) is the pale/droopy comb and her body language (lethargic, droopy tail). She has green poop but I think that's from the antibiotic - hence the yogurt I'm giving her. I'll pick up some Tylan 50 and try that since the Durmycin isn't working.

If they're carriers, can they give it to my other chickens? I have 2 separate coops that free range in the same 1.5 acre chicken yard. If they're symptom free can they spread to the other chickens?

I'm also going to contact my extension agent and see if Livestock Poultry Health will come out and test so I know what disease I'm dealing with.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Eggcessive]

Yes if they are carriers, even if they have no signs of illness, they can infect others.