Sick silkie...bubbly eye, runny nose...???

[bkterry]

background info:
okay so we made a big mistake....i've been wanting to add some buff brahmas to our flock for months now so when we happened upon a young pair at the flea market we bought them. not too long after we brought them home we noticed the rooster acted kind of odd, losing his balance a lot, sometimes a runny nose, kind of stinky... we have always had healthy chickens though so i didn't know what to think of it. he ate and drank well, never heard him crow kind of timid, but didn't act unusually sick or anything. a couple weeks after we bought him i went to the coop to let the chickens out (they are always going crazy at the door trampling each other ready to get out), and when i threw out the feed and let them out he didn't come. so i went in to the coop and found him standing in the corner looking kind of like he was sleeping. i went over to him and he raised his head and looked around dazed like he didn't know where he was. put him in a cage by himself with food and water, came back a couple of hours later and found him dead. we burned his carcass and bleached the coop down.

the problem:
upon further inspection i noticed that probably 5 out of our 30 chickens had runny noses. we immediately started them on aureomycin (spelling?) by recommendation at our feed store, and now 7 days later they all seem fine...except one. my silkie hen, who is probably 6 months older than the other chickens, (she and the silky rooster are from a previous flock we had raised, always been healthy never a problem) didn't seem to get better. her left eye was swollen shut and had a very runny nose. she has been eating and drinking and foraging normally. no changes in her behavior otherwise. i have been putting neosporin over the infected eye for a couple of days along wtih the aureomycin in her water. i have given her yogurt to eat. now her eye opens but it seems to be bubbly. the other eye has been and is still perfectly clear. she doesn't act abnormal or sick at all, it's just that funky eye. i'm worried because it doesn't seem to be clearing up. what can i do for her and does anyone have any idea what this is? i've been rading up on crd and coryza and all sorts of things but i thought maybe someone could give me more input? i really don't want to lose her she is the only chicken ive had to actually hatch out some chicks for me and i love her! i'm wondering if i am going to have to put her down or my other chickens for that matter in order to get rid of what ever this disease is...? i know they can become carriers so if they do is it safe to keep them or do they and the whoel flock have to be disposed of? sorry this is so long i'm just severely worried.... it's taken us so long to finally overcome all of the coop design flaws and predators and get a strong flock and now i'm afraid we're going to have to start from scratch...un

 

[chickie_momma]

there have been many threads re: bubbly eye...do a search...
I believe it has somethig to do with being a respiratory infection....

dhlunicorn is a good one to ask for advice.

hope this helps

 

[needmorechickens!]

You can also search for "foamy eye". Is there a terrible smell with it (coming from the mouth)?
~Rebecca

 

[bkterry]

:/you know the buff brahma that died stunk all the time...kind of like rotten meat i guess. when we first got him we thought it was because they had kept the poor things in such a small cage that they had poop in their feathers and just needed to kind of air out. but he always stunk terribly. the sick silkie doesn't really stink. she does have brown all in her feathers (shes white) which i guess is mucus. ive done searches but i just can't figure out if its crd or coryza. from what ive heard coryza is kind of rare so i don't know the likelihood that that's what it is. my main concern is whether i need to cull my entire flock and start from scratch...

 

[dlhunicorn]

sounds like coryza
http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/206600.htm

 

[M@M@2four]

Hate to tell you this, but that's Coryza. I'd be tempted to track down the people that sold them to you! It can only be treated with specific, STRONG antibiotics...you can call the, "Chicken Doctor," Peter Brown. He will tell you all that you need to treat it. Here's hie number: (800) 950-8387

 

[bkterry]

i was afraid of that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!un

thanks i will try to give him a call.

okay here's my next question...do all chickens who come in contact with the disease contract it and will they all become carriers? only a select few of my chickens have shown any symptoms at all and we have culled them and burned their carcasses. i know i made that sound short and simple but it was MUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCH harder than it sounded. i'm fighting back tears right now. my question now is are all of my chickens that are left (the ones who did not show any symptoms) automatically carriers? we treated them with the antibiotic aureomycin all last week, and the place where we bought them (rural king, our local feed) said they were treated with aureomycin when they were chicks so they should have an immunity??

 

[bkterry]

by the way i forgot to add that of the ones we culled 4 were from local breeders who had not vaccinated or treated them with aureomycin when they were chicks. only one of them was one that we had bought at our feed store and it only showed mild symptoms.