"We have a rooster that is wheezing. He has no discharge anywhere. Eating and acting normaly. His crowing sounds like laryngitis. He is beginning to develop a dark purple/black comb. I started him on Duramycin 10 for 2 days now. It seems to be getting worse." HELP!!
You can try switching to Tylan 50 its geared for respitory. large birds are 1\2 CC SMALL BIRDS 1/4 CC given in the breast once daily for five days. This should help. You can find tylan 50 at any farm store. Its always worked well for respitory issues in chickens. Its Tylosin antibotic. Very good choice for respitory. Also with injection it gets into the blood stream faster and dose is much more reliable than a water soluble which is contingent on amount drank. So give this a try and you should begin to see improvements in a few days.
The Duramycin will only help if it is a bacterial respiratory disease. Viral diseases are not harmed by antibiotics. Because your rooster's comb is turning dark, I would suspect that he may have other things wrong with him as well, like some heart problems. Still, as Realis suggested, try Tylan50. It should be pretty easy to find, though you might have difficulty. Just look for it in livestock supply stores; its sold for large livestock, but can be used for chickens. Give 1cc for large fowl, .5ccs for bantams or small birds. Inject it into the breast muscle once daily for five days. Use small needles, 20 - 22 gauge work well. Here is a link to information on giving chickens injections:http://shilala.homestead.com/injection.html
I agree with trying the Tylan. He may have pneumonia. Antibiotic's won't cure a viral disease but they can prevent or help the common side effects of those diseases which are pneumonia/secondary bacterial infections. Those are what usually will kill the bird rather then the disease itself.
