Respiratory Virus

[Tkrier]

We have been struggling with a viral infection for about a week now. It started with one bird (who recently went to fair) and is slowly moving through my flock. It’s all upper respiratory. My vet started the flock on antibiotics 4 days ago. The first bird that showed symptoms improved initially, then declined and now seems to be improving again. I know the antibiotics won’t cure the viral infection, just protecting against secondary infections. Has anybody been through anything similar? How long can I expect it to hang around? I hate seeing my babies sick.

 

[Cyprus]

Where do you live?

 

[dawg53]

It could be Infectious Bronchitis (IB.) However, IB generally infects a flock rather quickly. Do you own a large flock? It would take a few days for IB to run through a large flock. As you stated, antibiotics wont treat a virus like IB. There are other respiratory diseases that it could be that antibiotics would treat, Mycoplasma Gallisepticum (MG) for example, which is common. A tell tail symptom of another disease, Coryza, is a foul odor coming from the head area of a chicken as well as facial swelling.
Here's a link to help you determine what respiratory disease you might be dealing with:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

 

[Tkrier]

Where do you live?

I’m in South Florida

 

[Tkrier]

It could be Infectious Bronchitis (IB.) However, IB generally infects a flock rather quickly. Do you own a large flock? It would take a few days for IB to run through a large flock. As you stated, antibiotics wont treat a virus like IB. There are other respiratory diseases that it could be that antibiotics would treat, Mycoplasma Gallisepticum (MG) for example, which is common. A tell tail symptom of another disease, Coryza, is a foul odor coming from the head area of a chicken as well as facial swelling.
Here's a link to help you determine what respiratory disease you might be dealing with:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

It could be Infectious Bronchitis (IB.) However, IB generally infects a flock rather quickly. Do you own a large flock? It would take a few days for IB to run through a large flock. As you stated, antibiotics wont treat a virus like IB. There are other respiratory diseases that it could be that antibiotics would treat, Mycoplasma Gallisepticum (MG) for example, which is common. A tell tail symptom of another disease, Coryza, is a foul odor coming from the head area of a chicken as well as facial swelling.
Here's a link to help you determine what respiratory disease you might be dealing with:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

 

[Tkrier]

We have a small flock. 13 birds. I do not smell anything coming from the birds. It has slowly trickled through the flock. I notice 1-2 new birds showing symptoms each day. There are still 2 seemingly healthy birds. Is the waxing/waning normal? If I relate it to a person with a cold... it makes sense, symptoms tend to come and go. But I’m new to chicken-keeping.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

We have been struggling with a viral infection for about a week now. It started with one bird (who recently went to fair) and is slowly moving through my flock. It’s all upper respiratory. My vet started the flock on antibiotics 4 days ago. The first bird that showed symptoms improved initially, then declined and now seems to be improving again. I know the antibiotics won’t cure the viral infection, just protecting against secondary infections. Has anybody been through anything similar? How long can I expect it to hang around? I hate seeing my babies sick.

We have a small flock. 13 birds. I do not smell anything coming from the birds. It has slowly trickled through the flock. I notice 1-2 new birds showing symptoms each day. There are still 2 seemingly healthy birds. Is the waxing/waning normal? If I relate it to a person with a cold... it makes sense, symptoms tend to come and go. But I’m new to chicken-keeping.

Welcome To BYC

I'm sorry to hear you have sick birds.
Since you have vet care, it would be a good idea to have your vet do some testing to find out what you are dealing with. Alternatively, contact your state lab about testing services. https://www.freshfromflorida.com/Bu...on-Animal-Disease-Diagnostic-Laboratory-BADDL

A lot depends on what you are dealing with as to how long you would expect it to hang around. Most respiratory diseases make birds and those exposed carriers for life - meaning your whole flock would be considered carriers of the disease even if they never show symptoms. They can pass the disease on to other chickens that you introduce to your flock and if you show (take the bird off your property), sell or gave away any chicks, hatching eggs or chickens, it's a real possibility they could make someone else's flock sick too. Keeping a closed flock would be the right thing to do at least until you get a firm diagnosis on what you are dealing with. Then you can make some decisions then.

I understand that sounds a bit drastic and the whole thing stinks since you mention that the bird that it seems to have started from was in a show. Sounds like someone brought a sick bird to the show and your bird came home with the illness and now it's spread to all the rest. Very sad indeed.
Hopefully the antibiotics will help control the symptoms and they will improve.

 

[Tkrier]

Thank you, I only have hens so no worries about eggs. But, we won’t get rid of or add and birds. My vet has some tests pending, so hopefully we will have answers soon.

I did read that they could potentially be carriers even if they aren’t showing symptoms. So, we will hope for the best... these birds are my kids’ 4-H project.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Thank you, I only have hens so no worries about eggs. But, we won’t get rid of or add and birds. My vet has some tests pending, so hopefully we will have answers soon.

I did read that they could potentially be carriers even if they aren’t showing symptoms. So, we will hope for the best... these birds are my kids’ 4-H project.

Glad you are having some testing done.
Let us know what you find out.

 

[Eggcessive]

I think that I had infectious bronchitis in my flock once. It is the most common respiratory disease in chickens, lasts about a month, and the chickens usually sneeze fequently. I separated mine into a small coop in my garden to recover. They are carriers for 5 months up to a year after recovery. Mine had some wrinkled egg shells and they can have other egg shell problems. In young chickens, it can affect the reproductive tract and kidneys. But it tends to be mild in adult birds.

You should not attend shows or add new birds for at least a year or more. You may find that different birds may get it , get well, then others get it. Their are vaccines available for new birds. I raised new chicks the next spring, and guess what, the new chickens got it. So I stopped breeding, and the disease stopped. IB can look like a mild strain of MG, but sneezing every few minutes seemed to be the biggest symptom I saw. I did see wrinkled agg shells, and many of my hens over the years had other shell oddities probably due to IB. If you read about common egg shell abnormalities, IB tends to be blamed for mayny shell gland problems. You can get testing from your NPIP tester, at least for MG to rule that out.