respiratory problem, no discharge. what are my possibilities?

[hooktontravel]

well, never mind! she just died very quickly in my arms. I had a crazy day & was gone all day. left her inside since it was rainy & nasty out... shut all the other guys in their house, then went to sit with her and give a few raisins & the last dose of safe-guard. She was lying on the floor and didn't 'merp' at me, and didn't manage to swallow a raisin (though she did take it from my hand). Her breathing seemed okay last night, but was quite gurgly tonight, so I picked her up to bring her in the house where it's warmer and see how she would feel then...She quickly spasmed, mucous came out of her mouth, and then she started loosing food. i tilted her so she wouldn't aspirate (hopefully) but she just flopped her head back & that was it.

So whatever it was, she isn't suffering anymore. I will find out about a necropsy, maybe?

I feel bad I was hesitant to jump on an antibiotic for treatment -- but since I generally don't take them myself I hate to use them without testing to be sure what she had. She had seemed so much improved, and even running around the yard Friday like she felt much better so I stopped being so worried. I figured chickens usually go so fast if they're really sick she would be gone before now.

:/ I kept wondering if I should cull her since she just seemed never as robust as the others. I wish for HER sake I had done it so she didn't suffer today while I wasn't home to check on her regularly.

Thanks for the assistance over the past few days. I appreciate your time.

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry for your loss. Keep her body refrigerated and call your state vet or dept. of agriculture about a necropsy.

 

[hooktontravel]

I'm taking her up today. interesting to find out if it's something I should have immediately applied antibiotics to. I don't like to use them randomly, and if the avian vet was closer probably would have tried taking her in out of curiosity. I just feel bad MoMo felt sick for so long.

 

[Eggcessive]

Let us know how it goes. There are so many chicken diseases, and some can come from mold fungus in food or in the bedding causing aspergillosis. That can become complicated by secondary bacterial infection. Antibiotics should not be used unless one is fairly sure they are treating a bacterial or mycoplasma, since they don't affect viruses or fungus.

 

[hooktontravel]

That is exactly why I didn't want to throw antibiotics at it, not knowing! when I read about the fungus it also sounded like giving antibiotics if you have fungus can make that way worse. if a specific disease is there, and antibiotics are known to knock it out, i'm in favor... just giving something because there's a respiratory problem doesn't seem wise, to me.

I have the initial report, and for one thing my pullet was a cockerel... there was 'severe chronic pericarditis and heart failure, with an abdomen full of fluid and also extensive hemorrhage into the lungs and subcutaneous tissues.' so if this is an illness it has probably gone on longer than the week or two, I would guess.

but if she was a salmon faverolles cockerel, that means he never developed proper coloring and definitely never reached the crowing stage. his 'brother' who might be a week older has been in full-on favs gloriousness for months now! So it could well be that even if there is mycoplasma or bacteria involved, there's a more foundational issue that let them get a foothold.

vet recommended testing for avian influenza in addition to mycoplasmas and bacterial cultures. no parasites present.

This has gotten quite expensive (initial necropsy is $25, plus the $.70 per pound disposal, but the other tests all are added on) but now i'm fascinated. too bad I didn't find out about being present for it all, because i would love to see how it's done (not that they probably allow random people in the labs!)

 

[Sony57]

Thanks for updating. I had a sick bird who past his last week. I was able to get throat swabs and send them to Zoologix. It cost $98 plus shipping. Results were returned within three business days. I was hoping to get the results back in time for proper treatment, unfortunately I waited too long to send the results off. That being said it turned out to be infectious coryza and now I am stuck trying to figure out what to do with the "survivors." Knowing is only half the battle, but I believe it is the most important half.

 

[hooktontravel]

Happy to share! I also was glad to find out (though sad I didn't know sooner) there's a vet office about 10 mins from me with a doc who will see poultry and will even do over-the-phone consult. It sounded like she'll charge a fee for said consult, but it would be substantially less than, say, a farm visit. and also means i probably could have gotten some testing done there -- or she could have recommended some.


Hope you figure out what to do about the coryza! that's so hard! I'll update again once I get bacterial and other test results back.

 

[hooktontravel]

AAARGH! still waiting on test results. lab was closed over the holiday and the weekend. Now my giant orpington boss roo is sneezing a lot and doing this whacky head shake -- sort of a snakey side-to-side thing. He's still crowing, eating, and running around okay, but I want to know what I should ask the vet to test him for if he has the same thing as the other guy (who has now been poshumously dubbed 'an undercover rooster' by my 7 year old nephew).

maybe i'll bring him in tomorrow and give him an oxine vaporizer treatment on the 'it can't hurt, can it?' theory.

 

[hooktontravel]

update: 2 weeks after the necropsy drop off I have results. No Avian Influenza or Mycoplasma. 'moderate growth of a gram positive bacteria' susceptible to a number of things including pennicillin and tetracycline, and resistant to a group of things including oxacillin.

SO I probably should have just gone ahead and given momo some tylan or tetracycline in his water. but I am not sure if i should just antibiotic the other guys who are sneezing, or if they are fundamentally healthier birds so they'll fight it off on their own? Was momo sick for 2 months with a respiratory bacteria and I only realized it was respiratory the final 1.5 weeks? or did he have something else going on and just couldn't fight off the bacteria.


I don't have to worry about some crazy sickness sweeping the flock & family and having nothing to fix it, but I have more questions now.

 

[egghead@1265]

What did you end up doing with the others? Did they become more ill? Did they gurgle? Was Momo a gurgling bird?

Do you or would you use Tylan or a tetracycline?

I am dealing with birds with the gurgles and the vet here said and sold me LS-50. 5 days and still some gurgling-I need to see what's next-as not better-but not worse either...

Any suggestions? Maybe 5 days is not enough? I posted elsewhere on the forums-and my internet just went down again! Ugh!!!