Respiratory Disease?

[abbey]

All my chickens appear to be fine, but a friend experienced with chickens came by my coop, held one of my hens and said that she has a respiratory disease. She said she could tell this because she could feel her breastbone and that you should not be able to feel the breastbone of a chicken. She advised that all my chickens need to be treated with antibiotics. I am not keen on giving my chickens antibiotics if it isn't absolutely necessary. Has anyone heard of anything like this? What disease is it?

 

[mypicklebird]

If your chickens have a respiratory disease they would have sneezing, puffy tissue around their eyes, runny nostrils or eyes, maybe difficulty breathing ect. or some combination of the above.

Unless your chicken is incredibly obese, you will be able to feel the breastbone (keel). Thin chickens have more prominent keels, some breeds are thinner than others. Cochins are blocky birds, leghorns are taller and thinner. Pick up several of your chickens and compare- are the all the same? Get used to what is 'normal'. Weight a few, and if they are purebred birds, you can look up standard weights.

Another note- even if your chicken(s) did have a respiratory disease, it is not necessarily a bacteria (which is the only thing antibiotics kill).

Antibiotics are overused already, don't be giving them unless you KNOW they are needed, and know why/what you are treating.

I am very skeptical of your chicken friend's diagnostic powers & recommendations. Finding a larger group of local chicken friends would be a good idea....



Quote:

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

generally it is called going light
when the chicken has no breast bone and is eating but not putting on weight
that would be mareks affecting the liver and some organs

but beyond that I would have to know these questions
(1 What breed is the chicken?


(2 how old is the chicken?

(3 What are you feeding the chickens daily

(4 does the chicken show signs of respiratory sniffling or snoty beak?

(5 what symptoms did the person think she had besides skinny breast bone?

I would tell her that if that wqas so she could be carrying the disease back to her birds!!

Sounds to me like some one looking for something not there

and NO I would not put them on antibiotics just for her pleasure

here is something you can do for them

Wet mash Probiotic

for each chicken fed
3 tbsp of dry crumble
5-1/2 tbsp of milk
1 tbsp of yoguart

feed this twice a week for some time
after 20-30 minutes clean wet feeder and restock dry crumbles
do not let the wet mash probiotic stay in feeder all day and spoil

email me PM with answers and any questions

 

[threehorses]

Agreed with the others - I don't know where your friend learned that, but she mislearned. Loss of weight can be part of a respiratory disease, but it's not a diagnostic tool alone.

I'd consider these things: diet - what are your birds eating. Are they cleaning it all up? Do they get supplementary food outside?

Worming: when birds go light, I always worm as a precaution. If it's been a while since you've wormed, worm with Piperazine first to kill off roundworms. Then go back with your harder hitting wormers later on - the ivermectins, etc. The reason being is that piperazine mainly hits roundworms and not others. Roundworms are the most prolific worms in a poultry yard. They also cannot be killed in one round of worming. So what you do is kill what you can the first time, and be glad you don't kill them all. If the bird had a heavy parasite load, the dead worms in the body could cause a sort of shock not unlike organ rejection (caused by the body reacting to a foreign protein in the body). Also passing all the dead worms can clog them.

So work with piperazine first, wait a few weeks, then work with piperazine again and/or another wormer. Always give probiotics when you worm or treat.

Since she's light, i'd at least give her a week of probiotics now to help her absorb more of her food come to think of it. But you want to fix the problem, not just give her temporary better digestion.

Also check her out very thoroughly for lice - up against the skin. They can make a bird anemic and thus less thrifty. If you find them, treat not only the bird but also the premises.

I don't know what you're feeding her, but make sure your feed supply is fresh - and that means that the feedstore is keeping a good turn over. It should be a complete feed designed for her use (probably laying) unnless you're very very experienced in putting together chicken nutrition. (No offense, but I wouldn't ask your friend about this one. )

Also make sure she's not the low-gal on the proverbial chicken totem pole.

Sometimes I have a hen that is too shy to go up and get her food til there's little left. I've had to watch to make sure they get a lot of food as well.

Hope these suggestions help.

 

[threehorses]

P.S. Never give antibiotics unless there's evidence of a bacterial infection or high suspicion of one. Light-weight is not even close.

 

[Redsquirrel]

When my chickens had a cold that turned into a sinus infection, they were sneezing and had fluid coming out of their noses. Vet said that they don't need antibiotics for just a cold and usually can get over it by themselves but since mine were super thin when i got them-they were not healthy and so it turned into a sinus infection, so they had to have antibiotics (same as humans-virus or infection question)
Sounds like yours are perhaps just thin. If they have no wheezing, sneezing, or discharge-I would not be treating them with antibiotics.

 

[pips&peeps]

I'll bring my kitty over and charge you for a "cat scan" if you'd like.....

 

[abbey]

LOL! Thank you all so much for the great advice!!!

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

How did these chickens ever get?
and what was wrong with them?

what did you do for them?
It would help others to know
any questions email me

 

[abbey]

Here are the answers to the earlier post:

(1 What breed is the chicken? Red star

(2 how old is the chicken? 5 months old raised from a chick.

(3 What are you feeding the chickens daily? Layer along with lots of greens and some food scraps. They are also free ranging.

(4 does the chicken show signs of respiratory sniffling or snoty beak? No symptoms

(5 what symptoms did the person think she had besides skinny breast bone?
She said it was a problem going around with chickens...Particularly from auctions (mine aren't). After picking up several of my mixed breed hens, she said she could feel all their breastbones, that they were all infected and needed to be treated.
I have done nothing to treat the chickens so far. But I will try some of the suggestions you have made.