Sick Chickens!

[hunter32]

Hey guys im new to the forum. I have six chickens each of which have recently gotten sick. I suppose we had this sickness before where three chickens got the illness, one died quickly, one died very slowly, and the other one has recovered. We treated them using a molasses flush and antibiotics in their water.

Recently though, one chicken had an eye infection which within two days spread to the whole flock. They had runny noses and their eyes each got swollen. They never seemed to stop pecking around, if anything they just decided to sleep more during the day. We have put them on antibiotics and put antibiotics in their eyes which seemed to help. As of now, most have seemed to recover with the exception of two chickens. One chicken, which was the first one to become ill, has a slight runny nose but no swollen eye. She just make some weird, yet alarming sounds all day long. (you can hear her in the sound byte below). The other chicken, which is the only rooster, still has an extremely swollen eye and a runny nose. He is and remains the sickest of them all. We are still putting antibiotics in their water but it doesn't seem to be improving anymore. Even when we put antibiotics in his eye, it seems to have little to no effect.

My question is what do you think they have and what can I do to treat them? I've read a lot and sometime culling them is mentioned but I have to intention nor desire to do that, and would rather have a flock carrying a disease with them as long as they can live with it comfortably.

Below is the sound byte of the one chicken that makes these noises all day, yet acts normally otherwise: (there's no sound until about 20 seconds into the clip)

sickchicken.4shared.com (then press the big play button)

Thank you for all your help!

 

[Cowgirl71]

I'm sorry, but I don't know what their sickness is. Here's a *bump.* Best of luck to you and your chickens.

 

[tammye]

can't view video so limited info but this sounds like a respiratory/sinus issue. look up respiratory disease in the search engine, lots of info and treatment plans. If the problem is due to a virus, antibiotics will not cure it, they may help with other symptoms. At least keep them warm, fed, and plenty of water, put some electrolyte solution in the water will help give them some strenght. good luck

 

[hunter32]

Thanks for the replies guys! I've tried searching the threads but everything I seem to find sounds so alike I have no idea what they might have. Has anyone been able to hear the sound clip by chance?

 

[tammye]

look up tayln 50, spelled wrong sorry, I believe this is what folks use for respiratory problems

 

[wyandotte freak]

We have had similar problems. Treated them with Duramycin then sulfa, both in the water. Duramycin did not work so hot. It kept coming back after we stopped treatment for two weeks. Then we switched to sulfa and that seemed to do the trick so far. The only problem is that we can't eat the eggs when they are on antibiotics and we had to wait a week or two after they were back on regular water before we started eating them.

Before that, We cured a buff and an isa brown using garlic. (our easter eggers seem to be a weaker breed when it comes to disease resistance and were not cured so easily)Garlic has many natural antibiotic properties. My wife chops up lots of it and puts it in their food.

on top of all that, we now dissolve shaklee liqui lea or vita lea vitamins in their water to hopefully keep their immune system strong.