Respiratory illness...Laryngotracheitis and new chicks

[chickengrl]

We are pretty worried about all these chicks too. Hope to hear something from the state vet really soon! I called today, but he had gone out of the office and i missed him. May try again tomorrow.

Some more positive news is the remaining flock seems to be improving some. We stopped the Tylan injectable after 4 days because there was no improvement whatsoever and I put Sulmet in the water to try something else. Kinda treating blindly at this point. They have been on it a bit more than 24 hours and this evening they do seem a bit improved. The girls whose eyes were so swollen and crusty seems to be much better. They can at least see. I let all who wanted out go free range today. Most went out and enjoyed the bit warmer weather. This evening I made scrambled eggs cooked with rice in some vegetable oil and fed it to them. All of them ate some, and some ate lots. I am really happy that at least those who have been so miserable are feeling a bit better. Even DH's EE rooster who I was sure was a goner a few days ago is looking more like his old self.

Anyway, we are waiting for the necropsy results.

Do you guys think we could keep a "sick" chicken coop and build something brand new on the other side of the property for our new chicks? My gut feeling is that we would eventually end up infecting the clean coop, even being careful. We have our labradors and a cat that follow us everywhere when we do chicken chores. we could change our shoes, but I am thinkging that it would be pretty hard to prevent cross contamination.

Anyway, thanks for listening!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Thats good news that you are seeing improvement.. and haven't lost any more.

about the cross contamination I can not address so hopefully others will be able to help you out there. Did want to give you this link it might be something you'd want to check out... www.shagbarkbantams.com/oxine.htm

 

[chickengrl]

Thanks Miss Lydia, I just got my oxine bottles delivered this past Friday. I ordered it after reading the link you provided. It sounds like some great stuff. I am expecting Denagard to arrive early next week to have on hand. We have not yet heard from the state vet and the necropsy results, so still no solid plan of action for us yet.

The illness in the coop seems to have become milder in its symptoms. We still have birds sneezing/coughing and one BR pullet has a bit of wheezing and a little less active. All are eating and drinking well. All with the eye crusting /weeping seem to have gotten over that. They are out free ranging after a breakfast of the scrambled eggs that we can't eat due to the antibiotics. Our 4 Sumatras out there are still symptom free. I still find this confusing. They seem immune to it for whatever reason.

Yesterday, we had 6 buff Japanese bantams hatch out from our pair who has been living in the basement all winter. They are still healthy and the chicks are SO tiny and cute. Little bitty fuzzies. We also have 2 more Ameraucana x Marans who hatched out. So, we have many little reasons to try to figure out what is making our flock sick . It would be so awful if the chicks got sick. Can't even think about it!

We have 10 more eggs in that incubator that should hatch today and tomorrow. We have the second incubator that will hatch next weekend. We will be over-run with chickies!

Thanks everyone for listening.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Can't believe you haven't heard about the necropsy yet. My goodness all the rest could be dead if you were waiting on them to let you know something. I am happy to hear it looks like what ever it is,was is getting better, sounds like your little ones are very cute. post pictures please I know for one I'd like to see them.. so hopefully this will be behind you shortly and all will be healthy from now on.. keep us informed please.. I use Oxine on a regular basis and am very pleased with it.

 

[chickengrl]

An update: I have not had great luck actually talking with the VA state lab veterinarian personally, but through a phone message and finally a written report we have a preliminary diagnosis of Infectious Laryngotracheitis. He mentioned that there are other tests still pending, I am guessing cultures to rule out other diseases that might be happening at the same time. He said that the lesions in the birds trachea were consistent with ILT. His message mentioned that we could vaccinate the flock for this. I am really confused!! The vaccine is to halt the spread of infection within the flock, but they all seem to be infected already. Even one of my Sumatras who have not been showing signs of it has sneezed today. Would you still give the vaccine? I understand that it may make them a little sick for a bit (modified live virus), and some may not survive it if they are already too ill. I know that if we add any chickens that they will have to be vaccinated so they don't get it from the others. Does this seem right?

We still have the 2 adult bantams living in the basement and I think they will need vaccinated before they can move out to the outdoor coop. We will also have to do all chicks at 4 weeks of age or before they move outside.

So, the newer tissue culture vaccine is not supposed to make the birds carriers like the embryo culture vaccine. This is the one we would use, but won't my birds who had the full blown infection still be carriers? We would have to keep a closed flock and no adult birds could leave here. Does that seem right?

Please help if you have some knowledge on this. We are hopeful we will not have to cull the flock, but want to fully understand what it means to keep them around. Thanks!!

 

[Miss Lydia]

so sorry you all are having to deal with this, and your poor chickens.. I sure hope someone will be able to give you some good advise about this.. ll the best and I will be thinking about you..

 

[ultasol]

There is a vaccine for ILT, but I think the affected birds need to be culled. ILT is not fun.

You need to order the vaccine posthaste and vaccinate all of your birds, or you could end up losing your entire flock. I believe carriers will have a flare up after the vaccine and can be removed from the flock at that time. Jean told me about a couple of instances of ILT in WA state, so I vaccinated for it.

 

[pips&peeps]

Quote:
If you vaccinate with the Schering Plough vaccine (LT-IVAX) it should stop the disease. And, from what Peter Brown has said most birds will recover quickly. This vaccine does not spread bird to bird.

The sick birds will still be infected though as this virus is a herpes virus. You can keep a closed flock and vaccinate all incoming birds in the future or you can choose to cull.

Yes, vaccinate all birds that have not shown any signs of sickness and if you decide to cull and start over, I would recommend vaccinating all your birds for a couple years just to CYA.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I have a question, if they decide to cull and start over, will that eliminate the disease or does it live in the soil, coop, etc? and how long will they have to wait till they can start over.

 

[chickengrl]

The vaccine is on the way. I ordered from Peter Brown on Friday. Should have it in the next couple days. I also have oxine to strip and clean the coop out, and to help prevent the spread to the basement brooder and our bantams. I also ordered a fogger so we can fog the sick birds and the coop. So, I think we will keep a closed flock with our sick birds. They will never leave the property, but it sounds like we can add birds, they will just need to be vaccinated. Looks like we could still sell any of our new birds(already vaccinated) and hatching eggs if we wanted to. We aren't even at the point we want to sell any birds, still trying to build a breeding flock for now, but we want to understand everything completely.

I have Denagard and was trying to decide if I should put them on a preventative dose for MG every month. Any thoughts?

Also, I have paid for hatching eggs and day old chicks from Whitmore Farms to be picked up in March. These are going to be his black and blue Ameraucanas and Copper Marans. I have been trying to decide if we should cancel this order. It sounds like if we are careful with them in the basement it would be OK to get them. And vaccinate at 4 weeks of course. I think I will contact him though and see if he would like to meet off his property or if he even wants to complete the order. There is NO WAY I would want to bring this to his birds!!

What do you guys think? thanks!!