Sick hens any suggestions

[Thatothercrazychickenlady]

Hello,
I purchased a silver laced Wyandotte hen back at the beginning of June. Due to a breach in quarantine now all my hens (3 red sex links of 3 years of age, 1 black sex link 4 years of age and 2 gold laced roosters at 16 weeks of age) are showing similar symptoms and one even passed away (I’m not sure if it was entirely related because she was showing lesser symptoms than the others).

Environment:
They are bedded in a thin light amount of Kiln dried Pine shavings and have been since I got them last fall. The Silver laced hen was on concrete during her quarantine. They get to free range during the day and are locked in at night. They get ACV in their water and are fed lay mash. Their coop is cleaned 1-2 times a week and is well ventilated. Nesting boxes are filled with a handful of hay. It has been really hot lately! The max temperature my coop heats up to is 28 degrees in which then we turn on a fan.

Symptoms (in order of which they appeared):
•Open mouth breathing
•Gurling when being picked up
•coughing
•Sneezing
•Head shaking
•Weezing
•Panting
*in one chicken only*
•Loss of appetite
•Lathargy
•Self isolation
•Death

My Roosters are panting a bit but seem to be the only ones well off.

All poops are normal but a little watery the silver laced actually has pretty foamy poop, everyone is eating and drinking fine, laying consistently other than the roosters, no discharge from nostrils or mouth, no swelling, eyes are clear. Even the chicken that passed away didn’t get any new symptoms other than the ones to let me know she was on her way out.

Treatment so far:
•AVC in water
•Chicken vitamins added to water
•Tetracycline added to water (on day 2 now)

I’m thinking maybe I should have just gone for Tylan instead of Tetracyline. Should I swab for gapeworm? What is going on? Should I just leave them be? It’s been over a month and I really feel the death was maybe only half the respiratory issues fault. The heat is rising again and symptoms are definitely worse with heat. My black sex link has even started gurling at a rest. Would really like to treat the problem and hopefully without culling them all :/

 

[azygous]

Yes, I would treat them all with Tylan. Individual administration of the antibiotic would be better than just sticking it in the water as you would know each is getting a full dose. With Tylan, you can either inject it or administer it orally. It sounds as if you have a full blown respiratory virus in your flock aggravated by the stress of the heat. It's likely Micoplasma which is very common across the span of a lot of species including people.

 

[Thatothercrazychickenlady]

Yes, I would treat them all with Tylan. Individual administration of the antibiotic would be better than just sticking it in the water as you would know each is getting a full dose. With Tylan, you can either inject it or administer it orally. It sounds as if you have a full blown respiratory virus in your flock aggravated by the stress of the heat. It's likely Micoplasma which is very common across the span of a lot of species including people.

Thank you so much for the response can I administer the injectable Tylan orally or do I need to get the water soluble Tylan to give orally?

 

[azygous]

The injectible, if you're using Tylan 50, can be given orally at approximately .5 ml per bird. I mix it in a bit of water to dilute the caustic effect. For some reason this stuff, as effective as it is, is caustic on tissue. I've also discovered it's much easier to get the dose down without wasting any by tubing and injecting directly into the crop.