This year we decided to try our hand at raising meat birds. We keep about 30 laying hens and have never had problems with disease. I haven't brought in any new birds for over a year--we hatch our own or buy fertile eggs. After butchering our young roosters, we decided it was not bad and and ordered some true meat birds. The first 20 are Cornish Rocks pullets that I bought from a local woman who got them from Mt. Healthy and are now 8 weeks old. The second batch are 5 week old jumbo Cornish x pullets from McMurrary. They are the ones in the following pictures. The meat birds are housed in a different area from my layers, but both are allowed to free range all they want, so they do come in contact with each other. The first sign I saw was about 3 weeks ago, I noticed one on my 2 year old NN hen was sneezing and kind of gurgling when breathing. A small amount of clear fluid in the nostrils- no swellings or any other symptoms. She got 2 injections of Tylan 200 48 hrs apart and recovered well. None of the other laying hens ever had any symptoms.
I started noticing that some of the meat birds were not growing as well as others and increased the protein in the feed that we ferment. Last week I noticed that a few of the meat birds were sneezing. Nothing serious. I went out Thursday evening and some had labored breathing, wheezing and were noticeably cyanotic. I brought them in and gave them .25ml injection of Tylan 200. The smaller 2 remained the same but the bigger one (red band on leg) improved. I gave them their second dose today. Shortly after wards the one with the yellow band died (I wonder if I hit a vein). I am having her necropsied on Monday. I didn't want to pay for an emergency necropsy (on Sat), so she is in the fridge. I took a bunch of different swabs. By now most of the meat birds are affected to some extent. It is not possible to inject them all nor do I want to since they are for butchering. I have some Tylan 50 powder ordered but it is not here yet and need some thing now. Any suggestions would be appreciated before I lose them all!
The pics are to show how cyanotic (blue) the smaller two's legs and faces are when compared to the bigger one of the same age, (5 weeks). They had normal feces and were eating and drinking well. They get fermented 20% crumbles, some scratch, whatever they get free ranging and I put ACV in their water.
The one standing has on a green band and is still (surprisingly) still alive. The other one died.
I started noticing that some of the meat birds were not growing as well as others and increased the protein in the feed that we ferment. Last week I noticed that a few of the meat birds were sneezing. Nothing serious. I went out Thursday evening and some had labored breathing, wheezing and were noticeably cyanotic. I brought them in and gave them .25ml injection of Tylan 200. The smaller 2 remained the same but the bigger one (red band on leg) improved. I gave them their second dose today. Shortly after wards the one with the yellow band died (I wonder if I hit a vein). I am having her necropsied on Monday. I didn't want to pay for an emergency necropsy (on Sat), so she is in the fridge. I took a bunch of different swabs. By now most of the meat birds are affected to some extent. It is not possible to inject them all nor do I want to since they are for butchering. I have some Tylan 50 powder ordered but it is not here yet and need some thing now. Any suggestions would be appreciated before I lose them all!
The pics are to show how cyanotic (blue) the smaller two's legs and faces are when compared to the bigger one of the same age, (5 weeks). They had normal feces and were eating and drinking well. They get fermented 20% crumbles, some scratch, whatever they get free ranging and I put ACV in their water.
The one standing has on a green band and is still (surprisingly) still alive. The other one died.
