Sneezing chicken

[Sweetpea325]

I just bought a 6 month old white leghorn hen, I noticed she is "sneezing" alot. Her nose is not running but she seems really tired (but I figured she may be tired because she just came to her new home and it's alot to take in). It also kinda looks like she may have diarrhea, on her bum, she has poo on her feathers. Should I give her antibiotics? and What kind? Is this normal?

 

[CMV]

Return her from where you got her. She is sick. Someone pulled a fast one on you and sold you an infected bird. Please tell me you quarantined her from the rest of your flock.

 

[Sweetpea325]

Is there anything I can give her to help her?

 

[CMV]

Is she quarantined from the rest of your birds?

 

[Sweetpea325]

Yes. I do have her seperated from the rest.

 

[CMV]

You will need to maintain the strictest biosecurity to keep that bird from potentially infecting your flock.

I would not give her anything until you are sure she has something that needs treatment. I don't treat birds prophylactically because it can make diagnosing them much more difficult when they finally become symptomatic. Give her access to feed and water, and monitor her closely. She will either improve or get much worse in short order. If she gets worse you can decide what to do when you know more about what she has.

If she should improve, you are going to need to decide what you are going to do with her. I would not introduce her directly into your flock. I would introduce a sacrificial bird into her quarantine space and see if that bird gets sick. If the sacrificial bird remains healthy for a month after sharing the same space with the leghorn, then she is probably healthy and can be added to your flock. If the sacrificial bird gets sick, then you know the leghorn is a carrier of some dread disease and should not be introduced into your flock.

 

[Sweetpea325]

Ok so I should just wait and see what happens. If she gets worse, what should I do? What if she doesn't change symptom wise in the next 30 days?

 

[dawg53]

Ok so I should just wait and see what happens. If she gets worse, what should I do? What if she doesn't change symptom wise in the next 30 days?

She most likely has a respiratory disease and she will never be cured even with treatment. I recommend you cull her before the disease is transmitted to your other birds.

 

[Sweetpea325]

I've had her on tetracycline for 4 days now, she's a lot more active and eating and drinking normally. But she is still sneezing with some clear discharge, should I put her on tylan or just keep her in the tetracycline until she stops sneezing?

 

[Suzierd]

You should return her to we're you got her and disinfect the area she was in and anything that came in contact with her, your clothes, shoes everything. Even if she gets better she will still infect your flock.