sick chicken!!! help

[Turkens-r-Cute]

how do you know they are carrying the disease? i only have 3 chickens that have this. i was just thinking it was phneumonia becasue another person had a chicken that was doing what my chickens are doing. so thats what i think it is. and its not spreading to the flock. not that i know anyways. none of the other birds are getting sick. but like everyone keeps telling me that they can not show sighns but still be carriers. but there is where i am confused. how do you know its a carrier? i am just guessing at what they have. and what they had last year was a little bit different than what they have this year. i thought it would be the weather. our weather is hot then cold. hot then cold. and so i thought it was the weather. and their symptoms this year is runny nose, watery eyes and only one chicken has gurgly and wheezy breathing. and the other 2 just have the runny nose and watery eyes. but i dont know waht to do.

 

[BJ]

I THINK the only way to know you have a carrier is if it survived through an epidemic without getting sick. (Maybe another way to find out is a necropsy?) The carrier birds will NOT get sick with the others, but have built up an immunity strong enough to fight off the disease UNTIL they lose resistence or get stressed and then the disease can present itself and the bird may or may not get sick.

Perhaps you should isolate the sick birds. I like to use Vet Rx and give the birds water with electrolytes. If you have limited resources, you might try this approach to make sure no others get sick.

If these sick chickens are highly valued, you may want to try the antibiotic approach as mentioned in previous posts.

I know from experience, though, that the sick birds are always sickly and some experts (I have read) suggest culling birds that have such health problems in order to keep them from breeding and to keep the rest of the flock healthy.

 

[Turkens-r-Cute]

my sick birds are isolated. and i am using vetrx. i am going to give them so tylan tommorow. if that doesnt work then i am probly going to cull the sick ones.

 

[BJ]

I'm truly sorry for your trouble. Hope they recover quickly!
Very best wishes,
BJ

 

[tiki244]

Blue Ribbon is Merck electrolyte and glucose to be mixed with water. It is at Farm and Fleet for 1.50.

Another danger at the fairs is if you dont vaccinate for Laryngo or Merricks and other birds have been vaccinated your birds can pick it up. I do not particularly like to show for this reason.


Hope you have some better luck with your birds. Try the links at the top of the pafe and try to match symptoms with diseases.

Start feeding massive amts of garlic whether you give antibiotics or not. and grit. Try scrambling a bunch of eggs for them to give them more energy to fight the disease.



ETa a VERY good investment would be Gail Damerows book The Chicken Health Handbook

 

[mrs.67]

I have been following this post and being very new I have some questions. When you say garlic do you mean raw garlic or mixed with food and if so then what. Also can I give my chickens eggs just as a treat and would this be good for them? I would like to keep their immunity built up so they have a better chance of not getting anything from another bird. We don't show but if my son ever did i think now I would be afraid.

 

[BJ]

You can mix 1 t of garlic powder into 1 gallon of water to build up immunity. Not sure about raw garlic...check the chicken treats chart by buff hooligan. You should also do a search about apple cider vinegar (the organic kind) for chicken health. There is some good information here. I, personally, prefer the holistic approach. It is super hard to diagnose respiratory problems. For egg, I think crushed up hard boiled (not sure). I feed mine yogurt, which is also a very good, healthy supplement.

 

[gumpsgirl]

Do your chickens have watery eyes in both eyes or just one? Also have you noticed any clouding over of the eye that is watery? I am asking you this because the symptoms that you are describing sound an awful lot like the symptoms that my chicks and chickens were having when they came down with Infectious Coryza, which by the way is extremely contagious. I have read through this thread and did see where you posted that you wanted to get your birds better so that you could take them to the fair and then read where others have urged you to not take them to the fair. I have also read that you are now not taking them to the fair. In all honestness and fairness to other exhibitors, your chickens should not in any way shape or form go to the fair after being sick. If they are healthy next year, then maybe. I had a healthy flock until I went to a swap meet the end of June and my son came home with a six day old bantam chick that was ill. This was on a Sat. and by Monday, half of my flock was sick. On Wed. that bantam chick died and all 50 of my chicks and chickens were sick. Over the next month I lost 17 more due to the illness. It was extremely unfair of the person who sold the chicks (gave my son this one) to bring her chicks to the swap after knowing that her chickens had been ill just two weeks prior to the swap. This disease has been devastating, time consuming, and expensive. I had to treat my birds with Gallimycin ($25), give the Coryza vaccine ($35 + shipping expenses), and order some oxine solution to disinfect my coop ($40). This doesn't account for all of the chicks that died and the ones that I was going to sell and now can't. Most of the people who have responded to your post here are very familiar with what I have been through the last couple of months. That is why they are urging you to not take your chickens to the fair now. Nobody was trying to be rude, they were trying to be responsible because they have seen what has happened to me. I hope and pray that your flock does not have Coryza, but at any rate it does sound like a respiratory illness of some sort which usually leaves your birds being carriers of whatever they had. You could cull the sick birds, but that doesn't mean that the others aren't carriers now. The most important thing to do now is to get a correct diagnosis of the illness and treat it accordingly. I do feel for you! This is what I've done my whole summer. It has not been fun! If I can help you in any way, please feel free to PM me. I would be more than happy to help.

 

[mypicklebird]

A carrier in your case is a bird who has very mild or no symptoms of some disease. Like a person walking around with ringworm or scabies (or something else infectious) that looks and feels fine, and then exposes other people. Google Typhoid Mary Mallon- a fine example of a human carrier who spread Typhoid fever to many people, several of them dying. She denied being a carrier, and ended up forcibly quarantined for public health- reminds me of that guy who flew in a crowded airline cabin back and forth to Europe from the US with drug resistant tuberculosis- but then he knew he was sick. He made me mad- educated man, personal injury lawyer to boot- the man knew better. ANYWAY I digress...

You can't really ever know if you have a carrier in your flock unless you cull/sacrifice ect one or some and have them tested. Another way to guess is if you close your flock to newcomers for a few months or a year and wait till everyone seems fine- then introduce some from another closed and healthy flock (not unknowns from some auction). The newbies will probably get sick after being there for a week or two with whatever the flock is carrying. You probably do not have one carrier- you probably have many- anyone who was sick and recovered might be a culprit. Again, it depends on what the bug is- and you can't know what that is, until you have some hard lab data. You can guess by the symptoms. Serious breeders/hatcheries ect depopulate entire flocks and sanitize aggressively to be rid of some of these infections- and start afresh.
jess

 

[Turkens-r-Cute]

i might just go ahead and start fresh. Or i am going to kill this one bird. I dont know what is wrong with her but she has had a runny nose since the first time they got sick. SO i will probly take her and get her tested and see what is wrong.