Sick little chickens

[KBUGS]

Ok,so we made a terrible mistake and got 5 chickens from a girl and I knew when we pulled up we should have left, but we drove 3 hrs to this place so I went on with getting a few birds. The place was stinky, but it had just rained very hard for a few days before so I thought maybe that was the problem, but still, there were too many chicks in too small cages and I feel like an idiot for buying ANYTHING. BUT, I did. So now I got these chickens home and OF COURSE they are sneezing and have runny noses. No watery eyes, no swelling, but def. lots of sneezing. We have them separated, and they are on Duramycin. Should we just cull them? Seriously, we have ten 6 month old chickens that I am VERY attached to. They are so sweet. I really just don't want my big girls to catch it. Will they catch "it" even if we get the little ones better? The little ones went in the run yesterday for about 20 minutes while the big girls were free ranging, but then went straight into confinement. They really haven't had direct contact with the big girls, but it sounds like everything is so contagious they might have gotten it already since the sickys went into the run for a bit. Grrrr. I'm so mad at myself. Idiot newbie. Please give me some advice?????

 

[KBUGS]

Please, just be honest. I can take a blessing out too. I am beating myself up so badly.

 

[RHRanch]

If the contact is minimal, I would probably cut my losses, cull and hope that my other chickens don't get it. Always quarentine in the future (we've all been there, so don't beat yourself up._ and don't buy if you have an inkling that the birds might be unhealthy. Good Luck.

 

[b.hromada]

I'm so sorry.

I hope you're able to make them well, so that you won't have to cull them all.

 

[robin416]

Don't freak too much. Sneezing is often just a sign of an environmental change. The Duramycin is a bad thing since all you're seeing is sneezing which does not warrant antibiotics. And if anything else might have been there you are masking it. Now you don't know if there is a disease cause or environmental. I would remove the antibiotics and watch for physical changes, if there are none then the birds are probably fine.

 

[KBUGS]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU all for replying. We have def. learned a lesson, although I really should have handled the situation better from the get go. I'm going to give them some time and see what happens. They are on the back porch now in a HUGE box to keep them completly away from the others. They are digging the pampering they are getting with all the food and soft pine shavings and cool ceiling fan breezes.

 

[robin416]

And all of that is very different from the digs they came from. I've got one old girl that does this sound that raises alarms for anyone that does not know her. Let the weather be extreme, like now hot and humid or if Winter is really cold and windy and the sound pops up. Her own special sneeze that mimics people that sound like a fog horn when they sneeze. Nothing wrong with her, its just her reaction to the weather. Chickens are like people, put them in a new environment or change the existing one drastically then they will react. Its not necessarily a disease, just a period of adjustment.

 

[KBUGS]

For any wondering, we culled the sick chickens. Poor things. We called the NC State school of Vet. Medicine and she told us if it were her flock she would cull them. Especially since our priority is our established flock. Only hatchery chicks for us from now on.

 

[jjthink]

Jj