Sick pullet with closed eyes and lethargy

Heather-Feather

Chirping
Aug 5, 2018
43
48
89
Barred pullet. Approx 3 month old. Weights close to 2lbs (guessing). Does seem lighter.
When we first got her, and 3 others, about a month ago they all seemed fine. About a week after getting her we started hearing wheezing and we can notice that she was having respiratory distress when breathing. We immediately put her in a pet carrier and isolated her away from the other three. At the time she had very mucusy discharge coming from her nose and her eyes were very wet looking. We also noticed that the other three started to get sick one by one. They all seem to have done very well with Tylan shots. In fact, at this time, you would never know that the other three were sick. We thought that our Barred was doing much better and put her back outside with the other girls only to notice that she was still acting lethargic, standing still in one place and eyes constantly closed. Upon bringing her back in the house and back into the pet carrier you could see that her eyes were crusted shut. After applying moist paper towel over her eyes they got better, but she still holds them closed. We no longer hear wheezing. Once in a while we do notice that she lifts her head a little bit and opens her beak a small width and breathes and it's not with every breath. But in general her breathing does appear normal. She has been sick for approximately a total of three weeks now. There is no bleeding involved or any injury. At the very beginning she would not eat anything and then when she was feeling better she was eating scrambled eggs and her regular dry food. And drinking as well. Then we put her outside, the first time, and then brought her back inside and she was not eating right away but she started eating within a day or two after. She is eating scrambled eggs still and is drinking. I did not see any worms in the eyelids or in the back of the throat. However this morning I did see one tiny little bug running across her chest before I injected her antibiotics into her breast muscle. It was very small and it appeared to be a light brown color. I did not see any other bugs on her when I looked around. Her bedding is pine chips with in a cat carrier.
 

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Sorry about your sick chickens. Did you buy them from someone? They all sound like they came from a place that had mycoplasma in a carrier bird. It can be common in backyard flocks, but it is a chronic disease, and the chickens will always be carriers. There are other respiratory diseases, such as infectious bronchitis, ILT, and coryza, her MG causes bubbles in eyes as she has in the pictures. She also may have a secondary infection which has caused a worse case. Make sure that she drinks plenty, and if you mix a small bowl of chicken feed with a lot of water, it can get more fluids into her. I would also give her some chick vitamins and probiotics during and after she is on antibiotics. Tylan 50 can be given ORALLY at a dosage of 0.25 ml or 1/4 ml per pound up to 3 times a day for 5 days. Clean her eye with saline, and if you can get Terramycin Eye Ointment, it can help. I hope she gets better. If you add new birds or hatch some in the future, they may get sick as well.
 
I forgot to mention that you need to find out if she has lice or mites. Look under her vent and all over her skin. Lice are bothersome, but mites will kill. Permethrin dust or spray are good for both, and apply it at least twice at 7 day intervals. Here is some reading with pics to see what they look like:
https://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/pdf/8162.pdf
 
Sorry about your sick chickens. Did you buy them from someone? They all sound like they came from a place that had mycoplasma in a carrier bird. It can be common in backyard flocks, but it is a chronic disease, and the chickens will always be carriers. There are other respiratory diseases, such as infectious bronchitis, ILT, and coryza, her MG causes bubbles in eyes as she has in the pictures. She also may have a secondary infection which has caused a worse case. Make sure that she drinks plenty, and if you mix a small bowl of chicken feed with a lot of water, it can get more fluids into her. I would also give her some chick vitamins and probiotics during and after she is on antibiotics. Tylan 50 can be given ORALLY at a dosage of 0.25 ml or 1/4 ml per pound up to 3 times a day for 5 days. Clean her eye with saline, and if you can get Terramycin Eye Ointment, it can help. I hope she gets better. If you add new birds or hatch some in the future, they may get sick as well.
Thank you. Since Tylan said injection I didn't think could give it orally. I'll flush her eyes out too. Tytyty
 

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