Sex-link with Coryza (update) - how long for Tylan to work?

[dukecitychick]

I did a very bad thing and am now experiencing some consequences. We left our 4 hens with some friends (also chicken owners) who had an empty chicken tractor, while we were gone for the holidays for 2 weeks. I KNOW you're never supposed to do that, I didn't want to, it was the only option we had, and now look what happened! So you can all use me as an example for other folks who need to practice good biosecurity.

Anyways, I picked up our chickens last night and brought them home - it was dark and I just had a headlamp so I didn't get a good look at any of them. This morning I realized that our black sex-link had a funky eye, and it's gotten worse by this afternoon. This morning one of her eyes looked fine, but now it's bubbling. The other one is completely swollen shut and that nostril has yellow gunk caked around the outside of it.

Her breathing is labored (she gurgles on and off) and her face definitely stinks. She isn't listless - she tried to run away from me - but she's definitely not 100% energy. We have quarantined her while we figure out what to do.

From reading other threads, I gather this is some sort of respiratory issue. The three outcomes I see are 1) she dies (either from disease or we cull her), 2) she recovers and it's nothing to worry about, or 3) we can treat her, she recovers, and she's a carrier. We are planning on getting rid of the chickens next summer anyways because we'll be traveling for 2 months, so I'm not super concerned about having a carrier in the flock. I'll clean out the coop at that point.

My friend said she didn't notice anything like what I saw this morning during the 2 weeks our birds were over there. She's a pretty caring chicken owner, so it's plausible to me that this just came up - it's certainly developed fast today. None of the other chickens have any symptoms.

So, my questions are:
1) Is there any way to tell whether this is a viral or bacterial thing? I don't want to give antibiotics if it's a virus. Everybody seems to say "give antibiotics anyways because it will treat secondary infections", but I'm not sure I buy that.
2) I do want to do SOMETHING for her besides keeping her warm and giving her treats. I have cleaned off her nostrils with a wet Q-Tip so she can breath better. Any other ideas?
3) Given that we're going to get rid of the birds next summer anyways, is there any reason I should really consider culling? I'm not against it if she's going to die anyways and I could save her some misery, or if there's another good reason.

Pictures below - thanks for any help!

Her "face" is much more swollen than it looks like here, and the front of her comb is laying over.

This eye was fine this morning and is now bubbling.

 

[srhcth]

Sounds like Coryza to me. I have battled it all summer and culled (50) almost my entire flock on Friday. The adult birds seem to fair out better than the younger ones so she will probably make it with treatment and as long as you do not plan on adding anymore to your flock then holding on to them until next summer is definately an option. It may or may not affect her laying (it did mine). Good luck - it has been a long hard journey for me!

 

[dukecitychick]

Can I ask what you have treated your flock with?

Being Sunday, the only thing we could find was some Duramycin-10 at Clark's. I just gave her 1/8 tsp dissolved in 1 Tbs or so of water, squirted down her throat. I'm going to look for some injectable Tylan tomorrow. Does that sound reasonable?

She was scratching around the yard today, but she's not eating or drinking anything now.

 

[srhcth]

Tylan is what I treated mine with. I used the water soluble version due to the number of birds that I had but I did give the injectable kind to a few of them that were showing symtoms at different times. It seemed to work fairly well but I chose to cull as I like to hatch alot and it wiped out all of my babies so therefore I had to stop hatching. Any new bird that comes to my place will come from a hatchery or as eggs from breeders and they will all be vaccinated against Coryza. I did have mine tested by the state so that I would know what I was dealing with.

 

[dukecitychick]

I'm pretty sure it's Coryza, based on the awful smell.

I'm going to try to find the Tylan 50 injectable tomorrow and give her 1/2 cc/day for 3 days. Anyone know the dosage if I find another Tylan version?

Should I give it to the other 3 hens just to be safe, or should I wait and see if any of them show symptoms? Adding medication/antibiotics to their water isn't really practical because it freezes every night and I have to dump it out in the morning. Previously I've mixed antibiotics (amoxicillin for bumblefoot) in yogurt and they eat that right up.

Also, once I give the sick one Tylan, and assuming she makes it, how long do I give her to recover? If she's not better after a week do I assume the Tylan didn't "work"?

 

[Preservation Acres]

Can Coryza be cured? Will it be something that she will carry and can relapse or spread at any time?

 

[dukecitychick]

My understanding is that it cannot be "cured"- Tylan might knock it back to a dormant state but my chicken would always be able to spread it to other chickens. I've read that Baytril (?) will actually kill all the bacteria in the bird's system, meaning that she would NOT be a carrier, but it sounds like not everyone is convinced of that. If someone has definite evidence one way or the other, I'd love to hear it.

We were planning on either giving away or slaughtering our 4 hens next summer anyways because we're leaving for 2 months; this just means we won't be giving them away.

While I'm on the subject of Baytril, what's the dosing on that, in case I get some? Is it one shot or multiple days?

 

[meezermom]

Baytril is great - but it is Rx only from your vet.
We had both tablets (for dogs & cats), and a liquid compounded for cats/small animals.
It also comes in an injectible that we used for reptiles.
I wish you luck

 

[mmccallum]

Coryza is a problem in some flocks. It is a Mycoplasm which is a really tough germ to deal with. Tylan will knock it out, but it will be a long process. Once the bird has Coryza I think it becomes immune, but may or may not shed the germ in its feces from there on out. If you know that you have Coryza in your flock, you can vaccinate your chicks and it will not be a problem. Vaccination will not cure already afflicted birds, it will only prevent birds from exhibiting symptoms, which include going off lay.

If this is a pet bird, go to your local feed store and buy some needles and tylan 200 and you will need to give it a shot every day for several weeks. If it is not a pet bird, you might be better to cull it, and then vaccinate all the birds in your flock.

I hope that is helpful!

Malcolm McCallum

 

[dukecitychick]

Thanks, Malcolm. So I can vaccinate adults? I wasn't sure if the vaccines are just for chicks. I'm still waiting for feed stores to open here, but if I can find Tylan I'll give it a shot. (No pun intended.) They're not exactly pets, but given that it will take me a while to get up the courage to cull anyways, I might as well give her a chance to fight it off.

Where can I get the vaccine? Is it available online anywhere? I think I need to wait a little while and make sure none of the other hens display symptoms because you're not supposed to vaccinate sick birds, right?

So many questions!

Our sick hen doesn't look a whole lot worse than yesterday - her left eye is maybe a little more swollen and her right eye is tightly shut and oozing. I tried to clean out her right nostril again this morning but I don't think I was entirely successful. She definitely has the "rales" breathing and she keeps shaking her head, to clear her nostrils, I think. We got about 50 cc's of water down her throat this morning with a syringe because she hadn't eaten anything or drunk any water since who knows when.

Is there any "food" we can force-feed her? I don't want her to choke, since she's clearly having a hard time breathing, but I also don't want her to get super weak. We put some yogurt in her box and she didn't touch it - normally they all love yogurt.

Thanks for the advice, everyone!