Sneezing chicks one month later: now bubbly eye!!

[jmc]

Thanks, Cynthia.

yes kind of wierd situation. sneezing so long, yet so apparently healthy.........

I really want to do the Tylan, just to see....

I hope local farm store has syringes....could be hard to find, i fear.

 

[speckledhen]

Most every feedstore here has syringes. Get a 22 guage needle for the job, too. It's actually quite easy to do, if you get someone to hold the bird perhaps. A calm bird that will sit in your lap will be easier.

 

[jmc]

Great.

I've decided to make the one hour journey to the 'nearest' TSC--tomorrow. I imagine they'll have syringes & needles. Obvsly. i'll call before i go to make sure they've got what i need. I think it's a given that they'll have the Ty 50 Inj.

btw, go Zane! go Zane!! do hope all goes better. want to see your pic heavy post, too.

 

[coffeemama]

You can also purchase syringes from a vet-at least where I live. Good luck

 

[speckledhen]

Thanks for the cheer for Zane. He's still battling the infection; been on another antibiotic for two weeks now and I only have two left in the bottle, so I'll finish them out. If we could just get that infection completely eradicated, we'd do some therapy on the leg to see if we could get movement back. Anyway, thanks for thinking of him. He's a special, special guy.

 

[Wynette]

Hi, John; so sorry to hear your little ones are still battling the sneezing. Sigh. (Got your PM, too).

You mentioned using lime and the DL method; I could be wrong, but I feel like I've read on here that you should NOT use lime...I wonder if that could be part of the issue? I've tried the DL method and I just cannot seem to make it work for me. Each time I try, my coop ends up smelling poopy and of ammonia, so I've returned to thoroughly cleaning/removing all litter and replacing it.

You've probably already got the Tylan injectable; if so, please do use it and keep us posted. But, I also wanted to throw this out to you - I've got a friend whose been into chicken and other poultry for many, many years. I've been corresponding with her regarding a pullet I have that's been battling some sort of respiratory thing for weeks now, and here is her recommendation when I told her how frustrated I am, and that I don't know what to do next:

"Spectam injectable is great if you aren’t afraid to give bird a shot. It is
really easy to do. I keep a bottle on hand, and have saved some pretty sick
birds with it. I learned about it from a very experience dairy farmer who
also knows a lot about poultry:

"Give a shot of Spectam every 24 hours for 5 to 7 days at the rate
of 1/10th of a cc/ml per pound of body weight. So, a 5 pound bird would get
1/2 cc/ml. Just inject the bird in the breast meat deep enough that the
medicine doesn't come back out. This Spectinomycin seems to work pretty
good on CRD and Coryza. It's made to be used on Turkey Poults. We started
using it years ago when one of the Vets up here that was a Poultry Fancier
put us onto it. It beats Tylan 200 and Gallimycin for getting birds healthy
fast."

I'm going to be purchasing Spectam (my friend gets it from Jeffers. http://www.jefferslivestock.com/ssc/ )

She also included these instructions, which would be the same for any injectable, I'd assume:

Also order or buy needles and syringes at the feed store. The bigger the
gauge, the smaller the needle – so a 25 gauge needle is finer than a 20
gauge. Get the smallest needles you can find.

Get everything you need ready before you get the bird:

Rubbing alcohol
2 Cotton balls
Needle
Medicine

Fill syringe – daub alcohol soaked cotton on top of bottle. Draw up a bit
more medicine than you need. Hold syringe with needle pointing up and tap
until all air bubbles come to the top. Depress plunger until air is expelled
and a stream of liquid squirts out.

Soak another cotton ball with alcohol and get the bird. Hold her in the
crook of left arm (if right handed). Find meaty part of breast and daub
alcohol where you will give injection. Stick needle in just far enough so
liquid goes in. You don’t have to go deep. Depress plunger and withdraw
needle. That’s it.

You can practice on an orange.

Good luck, and please do keep us posted!!

 

[mockingbird girl]

Have you ruled out CRD? http://ultimatefowl.atwiki.com/page/CRD

That's a really strange thing.. never seen a chicken with a bubble in its eye before.

Good luck..

-Cat

 

[jmc]

Quote:
Wow, Wynette, huge thanks!

Re. the lime. Someone on the forum mentioned to me that he uses it in the chicken house and for the horse stalls. I've seen it recommended elsewhere. Go figure..

But even so. Lime has only been part of the little ones' lives for maybe 5-6 weeks. They've been sneezing etc. for way longer.......

Sorry DLM hasn't worked (yet) for you. You should keep trying. So far so good on this end. BTW, university experiment stations have raised with great success DOZENS of generations of chicks on the SAME litter. Provided no disease outbreaks occur and wet litter is removed, old litter properly treated should be something like wine: it improves with age. Loaded with Vit B12 among other things......

 

[jmc]

Quote:
Aren't you a dear?

A great link you gave me!!

and no I haven't ruled out CRD (or anything!) In fact, i think crd is what it is; but the drag is: What the heck do i know.

Now off to the TSC; and Wynette, we want to hear about you poor sick one. That is so sweet, the medicine dropper baby food thing; kinda like Speckledhens really cute playpen for her crippled Zane.

I hope this saying won't offend you, but I am a (Catholic) monk after all: GOD BLESS YOU GOOD PEOPLE

 

[Wynette]

And God bless you, as well, John!

I use lime in the form of PDZ for my horses, but with horses, their nostils are much further up off the ground than chickens' are. I'd worry that the dust could be toxic to their respiratory system, but I'm sure you'll find dozens fo opinions on any issues - your job is to make the best decision you can with all the info. you find, and then you just have to know you did the best you could.

I've been battling respiratory issues on & off for months now, it'd be way too long to hijack your post with it, and I think I've got things under control...at least for now! Whoda thunk chickens would be so fragile at times?

I will say that my friend and I who have hatched several batches of chicks this year and last have come to the conclusion that we will vaccinate our chicks that we hatch from now on. She and I both have had different issues with our hatched chicks, and we both started with hatchery vaccinated chicks. This is the only thing that we can find a common denominator for - she and I live 2 hours away, and with both of us, our hatchery chicks have had NO issues whatsoever - both of our starter flocks are over a year old. The only issues we've had have been with our own hatched chicks, all of which came from very reputable breeders. So, we are going to begin vaccinating hatched chicks and see if this makes a difference. It should be interesting. We're willing to try about anything, as we both got to the point this year where we decided we were DONE with chickens due to the frustration of illnesses we had to deal with.

Anyhow, BEST of luck - I'll watch for updates!!