Sick chickens/ starting over

[Katieskerlong]

Feeling pretty down about my situation with my chickens.
I’ve owned chickens for years but several months ago got into the idea of breeding and selling. I went about this in a poor way tho and got the first few off craigslist. Afterwards I learned the difference between that and buying them from breeders who are NPIP certified + the many different diseases chickens can contract that I had no idea about.
So I started buying some from reputable breeders in my area and building up my flock over time. I’m at 30 birds now and two weeks ago noticed one of my chickens had a swollen eye. I separated them, took them to the vet, and was told it was just an eye injury so I started treating for that. A week later another shows up with a swollen eye. Separated them too. And now I have 3 with swollen eyes. The first of these three is also looking much worse. Gasping and discharge. I’m so heartbroken because I know this is a bad sign. I’ll be having testing done hopefully in the next week to know for certain and then we’ll go from there.
I’m just not sure what I will do then. Cull the worst? I love each one of my birds and had a few given to me by relatives who are breeders. I’ve also hatched several as well and raised them. But I’m not sure I can handle having seriously sick chickens either. Theres also been so much time and money put into my chickens to build toward my goals and I feel so heartbroken. I could keep them as pets but I know how easy these diseases spread and I’m thinking about quality of life too. It’s incredibly disappointing and I’m kicking myself for being so stupid. Not to mention I have a couple ducks and quail.
I’ve had goats for years and always thought they were hard. I had no idea how complicated chickens truly could be.
Anyone who’s dealt with this or has a kind opinion, please share some feedback.

 

[BantyChooks]

Oh, I am so sorry. I hope you get some conclusive results soon and I hope it's something that can be managed.

Depending on what it is, you have a few options. If you want to breed and sell, unfortunately I might recommend culling your flock and starting over, including the ducks as they often act as "reservoirs" for pathogens that affect chickens and quail more strongly. NPIP requires housing ducks separately and maintaining biosecure practices between the groups - I don't know what your setup looks like now.

If you want to keep a closed flock, then you may be able to keep them, but I would recommend culling the most sickly regardless - it's not worth it to keep them alive with poor quality of life, imo.

One other possibility ONLY if it is something common such as MG would be to cull affected birds and breed for resistance. I did this when my flock contracted MG. In a few generations, they were symptom free & honestly all the hardier for it. Not recommended with more severe respiratory diseases, but, well, hopefully the tests don't show that.

Best of luck and keep us updated. It's a difficult situation, and for every 5 people you ask you'll probably get 7 different answers.

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry you are dealing with a common respiratory disease. Many experience this because a lot of people get into chickens without realizing the possibility of buying carrier birds from others. I would close your flock for the life of all birds, including the non-chickens. You can still enjoy having a flock and getting eggs. You obviously have MG or possibly that plus another disease. Testing would be a good idea, but a necropsy in a sacrificed and symptomatic bird or two would be what I would do. That will give you the answer of what your flock has. They should be considered carriers now for life. MG can show up again during periods of stress. Many backyard flocks have a disease. You can try treating symptomatic birds with antibiotics, or cull them and get a necropsy where testing is available possibly for an extra charge. I would forget about selling hatching eggs and birds. But you can keep your flock and have healthy birds if you cull the sick ones. Tylosin and Tiagard (Denagard, Tiamulin) are used to treat symptoms, but will not cure the disease of mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG.) Infectious bronchitis, ILT, mycoplasma synovia, and ORT are somemother possible respiratory diseases. What state are you in? Here is a good list of state vet labs to call yours for details about getting a necropsy and testing:
https://www.metzerfarms.com/poultry...L5h4Xt137GBu32pWJZSRUY5DYhQyVrd4ODmF-Ab8otocc

Here is a good article about MG:
https://extension.umd.edu/sites/ext... Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) Infecti....pdf

 

[Bsmac]

Feeling pretty down about my situation with my chickens.
I’ve owned chickens for years but several months ago got into the idea of breeding and selling. I went about this in a poor way tho and got the first few off craigslist. Afterwards I learned the difference between that and buying them from breeders who are NPIP certified + the many different diseases chickens can contract that I had no idea about.
So I started buying some from reputable breeders in my area and building up my flock over time. I’m at 30 birds now and two weeks ago noticed one of my chickens had a swollen eye. I separated them, took them to the vet, and was told it was just an eye injury so I started treating for that. A week later another shows up with a swollen eye. Separated them too. And now I have 3 with swollen eyes. The first of these three is also looking much worse. Gasping and discharge. I’m so heartbroken because I know this is a bad sign. I’ll be having testing done hopefully in the next week to know for certain and then we’ll go from there.
I’m just not sure what I will do then. Cull the worst? I love each one of my birds and had a few given to me by relatives who are breeders. I’ve also hatched several as well and raised them. But I’m not sure I can handle having seriously sick chickens either. Theres also been so much time and money put into my chickens to build toward my goals and I feel so heartbroken. I could keep them as pets but I know how easy these diseases spread and I’m thinking about quality of life too. It’s incredibly disappointing and I’m kicking myself for being so stupid. Not to mention I have a couple ducks and quail.
I’ve had goats for years and always thought they were hard. I had no idea how complicated chickens truly could be.
Anyone who’s dealt with this or has a kind opinion, please share some feedback.

So sorry for you