Nckyturkma
Chirping
I have a 5-month-old ameraucauna rooster. His name is Beau. He's a very sweet guy and i love him a lot.
About 2 months ago, we noticed him not closing his beak fully and some head shaking. I looked in his throat, worried he had gape worms, and instead saw what I thought maybe was a little canker, but it must have been cracked corn, because the vet didn't see it 2 days later. Anywho, we noticed his breath was really raspy, not gurgly, just raspy like he had something in his throat or almost like someone wheezing when they have asthma. Note, throughout this entire time he has been sick he has no other symptoms. He eats and drinks, he has lots of energy, a nice red comb, normal poops, no eye discharge, no sneezing, no crop issuses. No lameless. Nothing out of the ordinary.
We took him to the vet and they did a swab of his throat, in which there was a lot of bubbles of spit, and found he had an overload of gram-positive bacteria. Interestingly, the vet found a tiny string wrapped around his tongue. I don't remember seeing that when i looked in his mouth 2 days prior, but she thought that might have been part of the problem. They said he had a respiratory infection, which the vet attributed to the string, and prescribed him liquid Clavamox to give 2.4ml 2x a day orally until gone (I think treatment is suppose to be 2 weeks but there was only enough in the bottle for 10 days) and to come back in 2 weeks.
He did not get any better. We took him back to vet for a follow up and they offered to do a culture of a throat swab. At this point we were about $410 in at the vet. They said it would take about 3 days.
I felt so bad for Beau and his wheezy self. I had Baytril on hand and I didn't want him to get worse, so hoping it would maybe help, I gave him baytril at the recommended dose for his weight 2x day for 5 days. I did notice he seemed a bit less raspy, but it didn't make it go away.
The vet called after a week and said he had a lot of bacteria in the culture. She couldn't tell me what it was, and almost seemed offput when I asked for a copy of the lab results (me, a common non-vet peasant). They said the clavamox they originally prescribed was not the right drug to treat what he had and prescribed doxycyline for 2 weeks 2x a day (1/2 pill each dose). The lab results say enterococcus, Pastuerella, and actinobacteria.
I have researched these, but it appears actinobacteria can be found normally in the gut, and that species was found in low concentration. Enterococcus appears to cause inflammation of spine and I didn't find much about it in respiratory infections, and Pasteurella causes fowl cholera, which sounds terrifying, and would seem the most likely culprit, though it appears this can also come on as a secondary infection. NOTE: I have 4 other chickens and 1 turkey and no one else has his symptoms or appears sick. They have ample space and a clean coop but we do have rats at night we are actively working to control.
He is 1 week into the antibiotics and still sounds the same. Sometimes he sounds normal, but especially in the morning, it sounds like he is an asthmatic wheezing to get air. I don't know what to do. I have not tried any natural remedies, though I do put chicken elixir in their water, which has oil of oregano.
Anyone have a respiratory infection in a bird that just wouldn't respond to antibiotics?
About 2 months ago, we noticed him not closing his beak fully and some head shaking. I looked in his throat, worried he had gape worms, and instead saw what I thought maybe was a little canker, but it must have been cracked corn, because the vet didn't see it 2 days later. Anywho, we noticed his breath was really raspy, not gurgly, just raspy like he had something in his throat or almost like someone wheezing when they have asthma. Note, throughout this entire time he has been sick he has no other symptoms. He eats and drinks, he has lots of energy, a nice red comb, normal poops, no eye discharge, no sneezing, no crop issuses. No lameless. Nothing out of the ordinary.
We took him to the vet and they did a swab of his throat, in which there was a lot of bubbles of spit, and found he had an overload of gram-positive bacteria. Interestingly, the vet found a tiny string wrapped around his tongue. I don't remember seeing that when i looked in his mouth 2 days prior, but she thought that might have been part of the problem. They said he had a respiratory infection, which the vet attributed to the string, and prescribed him liquid Clavamox to give 2.4ml 2x a day orally until gone (I think treatment is suppose to be 2 weeks but there was only enough in the bottle for 10 days) and to come back in 2 weeks.
He did not get any better. We took him back to vet for a follow up and they offered to do a culture of a throat swab. At this point we were about $410 in at the vet. They said it would take about 3 days.
I felt so bad for Beau and his wheezy self. I had Baytril on hand and I didn't want him to get worse, so hoping it would maybe help, I gave him baytril at the recommended dose for his weight 2x day for 5 days. I did notice he seemed a bit less raspy, but it didn't make it go away.
The vet called after a week and said he had a lot of bacteria in the culture. She couldn't tell me what it was, and almost seemed offput when I asked for a copy of the lab results (me, a common non-vet peasant). They said the clavamox they originally prescribed was not the right drug to treat what he had and prescribed doxycyline for 2 weeks 2x a day (1/2 pill each dose). The lab results say enterococcus, Pastuerella, and actinobacteria.
I have researched these, but it appears actinobacteria can be found normally in the gut, and that species was found in low concentration. Enterococcus appears to cause inflammation of spine and I didn't find much about it in respiratory infections, and Pasteurella causes fowl cholera, which sounds terrifying, and would seem the most likely culprit, though it appears this can also come on as a secondary infection. NOTE: I have 4 other chickens and 1 turkey and no one else has his symptoms or appears sick. They have ample space and a clean coop but we do have rats at night we are actively working to control.
He is 1 week into the antibiotics and still sounds the same. Sometimes he sounds normal, but especially in the morning, it sounds like he is an asthmatic wheezing to get air. I don't know what to do. I have not tried any natural remedies, though I do put chicken elixir in their water, which has oil of oregano.
Anyone have a respiratory infection in a bird that just wouldn't respond to antibiotics?
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