Sorry to hear about your birds, OP. It sounds like you have stumbled into a "worse case scenario" in starting out with chickens. Don't get discouraged, just take things one at a time. Many very experienced folks will tell you two things:
1. ALWAYS quarantine new birds apart from your flock for 30 days. No exceptions.
2. Always clarify exactly what condition you are trying to treat before beginning any medication.
And I would add 3. Never stop examining your husbandry practice and looking for ways to improve how you keep your flock.
Everyone here does things a little differently, and there is usually a lot of tolerance for different ways of approaching chicken keeping. Some folks have beloved pets, and some have livestock.
That said, here's my own way of looking at your situation.
- FOOD/WATER. I would examine your food and water supply. Are they fresh and clean? Are you feeding an age-appropriate diet? Watch your birds. Do they all have equal access to food and water, and are they eating well? Is there a possibility that anyone could get ahold of bad food, moldy yuck, compost, mud puddles, etc?
- HOUSING. Are the birds dry at night? Is your coop overly dusty, moldy, or overcrowded? Is there adequate VENTILATION? This is a very important aspect of the coop.
Once you are sure your food/housing are not contributing to any problems, just take your issues one by one. You should always consider that birds arriving on your property could be carrying any sort of illness.
- RESPIRATORY issues. Are your birds' faces swollen? Are they pale? Is there runny discharge from nose, eyes, mouth? If so, what color is it? Does it have a foul odor? If YES, you may have coryza. Treatment or culling is another long post entirely. My own preference for respiratory problems is Tylan 50 (Tylosin), a powerful antibiotic that has an injectible and an oral form. This is serious stuff, though, so if you decide to do this as a new owner please PM me and I can help you with the process. Treating this incorrectly, or purchasing the wrong strength of Tylan, can kill your birds. If they were my birds, I would wait a day or two and see if whatever they had has not already run its course through the flock.
- MITES OR LICE. Sounds like you might have some poultry LICE, by your description. This is a pain, but not un-solveable. My preference is to dust my birds with ProZap Poultry Dust (permethrin) or a mixture of Sevin (carbaryl) and diatomaceous earth. I would first try the ProZap; you may find this at your local
Tractor Supply, co-op, or other farm supply store. If you do not have one in the area, I can send you some links to online stores like Fleming. To dust, simply take the birds from their coop at bed time, and (using rubber gloves), gently rub a partial handful of the powder deep into the feathers on their bottoms, and then a pinch underneath each wing. Re-dust in 5-7 days to kill newly hatching buggies. This will keep your LICE problem down.
Now drugs like Corid/Amprol are for coccidiosis, which it does not sound like your flock has. I would hang on to this drug and wait until you need it.
Hope that helps. If you can post close-up pictures of your remaining birds, it might help us determine their general health. Please feel free to send me a msg if you need further assistance.
And as always, if anyone on the forum has additions/corrections to my info, please chime in.
Good luck, and keep us posted -
