Respiratory illness, closed eye, sneezing

[HelveticaTheBold]

I’ve posted a few times in the past week about being on holiday whilst my in laws dealt with my rapidly dying flock. Local vet is useless but sent chicken off for necropsy.

Symptoms are:

Shaking heads, sneezing, stretching neck, watery eye, closed eye (tends to be one, not both), rattle when breathing, stopping eating and then obviously death.

We also had a horrible mite infestation but birds have been dusted and we’ll keep doing it.

I have oxymav B, saline solution, sani-chick which I think is iodine that can be used to disinfect, add to drinking water or painting on to wounds.

Any thoughts on where to start? Rinse out eyes? Just give the oxymav?

I was going to give yogurt and mashed boiled eggs too.

 

[HelveticaTheBold]

We’ve also separated as many sick chickens as possible but there are still sick ones in the main run that I’m literally about to move to the hospital runs.

 

[HelveticaTheBold]

Further update.

The chick run (maybe 12 weeks?) now has two sick ones. Possibly from not washing hands etc between runs as they are separated by 20+ metres. Do I pull them out or just assume they’re all sick now?

Finally some of the ones with closed eyes are incredibly swollen. The area around the eye is soft with fluid but really swollen.

 

[Cragg Klefor]

Hi Helvetica, sorry to hear you are still having problems with your flock. I wouldn't worry about separating the sick ones, as you guessed, it would be pointless as they are all exposed.

It could help if you could post some photo's and video of affected birds please?

Can you tell us if there is a smell coming from the birds with symptoms? Around their beak areas. I am wondering about Infectious Coryza which shows as "Swelling around the face, foul smelling, thick, sticky discharge from the nostrils and eyes, labored breathing, and rales (rattles—an abnormal breathing sound) are common clinical signs. The eyelids are irritated and may stick together. The birds may have diarrhea and growing birds may become stunted"
This is taken from this article which would be a good one for you to reference to right now: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

I believe a sulfa antibiotic is required to help with symptoms. Do you have baytril or Tylan50 on hand (just to know what you can use..
I will try find a link to where you could get the required medication and hopefully others will be along soon with more experience than I!!

 

[Cragg Klefor]

I have oxymav B

I would definitely go ahead with dosing them with this, is this from your vet? What dosage did they advise?

 

[rebrascora]

Hi
I am so sorry that you are having such a severe problem in your flocks. That is heart breaking. How old were the birds that were initially exhibiting symptoms before the younger ones started being sick. Where did you get them and how long have you had them...ie how old were they when you got them?
Have you added any new birds in the weeks prior to symptoms starting to show?
Have you changes anything that would stress the birds?
Do you have any adolescent cockerels in the initial group that may be stressing the hens/pullets and making them susceptible to viruses?

Photos and or video of the sick birds would be helpful and photos of any abnormal poop.
Video needs to be uploaded to a hosting site like Vimeo or You Tube and a link posted here.
It sounds like it is probably a respiratory disease but Marek's Disease is another possibility. You may want to contact your state agricultural department or veterinary college to see what testing/necropsy service is available for poultry. I appreciate that you are in summer so any bird carcasses you intend to send off for testing would need to be refrigerated (not frozen) until you can arrange it, or open them up yourself and have a look if you feel able and take lots of photos, so that we can try to help you diagnose it at home. Losing more than one or two birds to a disease/illness means it is important to find out what you are dealing with.

 

[HelveticaTheBold]

It’s an OTC anti biotic. One of the few you can get in Aus without a script. The dose is 5g in 50ml of water per 2 chickens. I’ve doses them all.

 

[Eggcessive]

Do you notice a bad odor? Coryza seems likely, but it could be mycoplasma with a bad strain or secondary infection. Respiratory diseases are spread by a carrier, and you should close your flock to new birds going in or out, until the last bird dies of old age. Otherwise the disease will be perpetuated in each new bird. Your oxytetracycline may help some, but if there is coryza or secondary infections, you might also want to add sulfa antibiotics to your treatment. Some of those are bactrim, sulfatrim, sulmet, and others which you may need to get from a vet by prescription. Make sure that birds take enough of the medicated water to get the right dose. If you have a poultry lab or school that could do a necropsy, I would get one done if you lose any to get a diagnosis.

 

[jnkir7]

anyone know what the dosage is for tylosin 50 for laying hens

 

[Eggcessive]

For jnkir7, I would use Tylan 0.25 ml (1/4 ml) per pound 3 times a day for 5 days. A 5 pound hen would get 1.25 ml. Give it orally without the needle. It can be given by intramuscular injection as well, but it can in some cases, cause tissue damage.