Sneezing new pullet

[Animalian]

Hi guys just wondering if you guys know whether I should be too worried about my 8 week old pullet.
She is happy, eating, dust bathing, clean bummed, normal pooped, shiny feathered and active. But she sneezes every few minutes. I even started her off as soon as she woke upwhen I checked her late last night.

It's a weird sneeze too, deeper, kind of snotty sounding compared to the normal occasional chook sneeze. But she has no nasal discharge...

Does anyone know what this could be? She's had it a few days, not seeming to get better or worse. I'd like to treat her now if needed in case she does end up getting any worse.

 

[earthmama24]

I advise all animal owners to dose their animals with GSE on a daily basis. It helps with viral, bacterial, fungal and parasitic. I put some my chickens water daily due to a big coryza infection we had. It works, it is not going to hurt if they aren't sick, you have no withdrawal time on eggs or meat, and you aren't going to cause antibiotic resistance. Please check out the following post for more info.

http://earthmama24.blogspot.com/2011/03/natural-treatment-of-infectious-coryza.html

Hope you can ward any issues off early! Best wishes on a speedy recovery.

 

[Animalian]

That's excellent thanks a lot I will get them onto it asap
What kind of store sells it? I swear I've heard of people taking it too. Health food shop maybe?

 

[chickengrl]

Do you have the sick pullet quarantined from the rest of the flock? It sounds like a respiratory infection for sure and they are very contagious. It is a good habit to completely separate new birds from your flock for 30 days and watch for illness. The bad thing about chicken respiratory illness is that most of the time they will become carriers if they are able to get over it. Some very knowledgable folks would suggest that you cull the bird. It's a very difficult and personal decision. I would recommend that you read about Biosecurity. Just type it into the search bar. We no longer will buy birds other than day old chicks from NPIP breeders and hatcheries. We hatch our own whenever possible. Buying older birds is the quickest way to bring one of these infections home. Also, type in respiratory infection and read as much as you can. If the bird dies, keep it cold and try to get it to your USDA veterinarian for a necropsy. They can tell you exactly what you have going on. The service is free in many states and low cost in others. Either way, good luck.

Also, forgot to mention that if you choose to treat the bird you can use Tylan 50 from the farm store. The dose is 0.5cc/ml for full size bird, 0.25 cc/ml for smaller bird injected just under the skin of the back of the neck for 7 days. many of these things are viral and don't respond to antibiotics, but it can help if you have a secondary bacterial infection. You can also look into Denagard. It would have to be ordered online for shipment. Culling is really the only for sure way to get it out of your flock. I hope this helps you.

 

[Animalian]

Yes she is in quarentine with the other pullet I got, which is not sneezing at all. They came out of the same coop from the breeder. Who had very clean facilities even though I surprised her with my first visit to inspect her flock. When I treat her I will be treating her friend as well just in case.

I may seem pathetically hopeful in saying this but could it be stress related from being re-located? Do chickens get colds? Or just these horrible full blown infections all the time?

 

[earthmama24]

Your best bet is to order online but you may be able to find it at a health food store. It will be more expensive though. You can get a bottle for $15 including shipping through Iherb.com.

Also, in regard to chickengrl's comment, I couldn't agree more. After introducing coryza into our flock with pullets, we will never again buy chickens that more than a day old. We actually can't ever buy chickens again while any of our existing flock is alive because the ones who had it when we bought them have never been sick but are carriers and the ones that got it, get it over and over (unless you give them GSE, which I do!). We are hatching out our own chicks now but they are all carriers so we can never sell them or give them away. I can understand people who cull sick birds, we just couldn't do it. We are too much backyarders and not enough farmers.

We personally choose not use antibiotics, under most circumstances, and instead use GSE, colloidal silver and MMS instead. These work great as substitutes and are much better for your body. (3 of my children have never had an antibiotic in their life, 2 have never been to the doctor for a sick visit. The only reason the other 2 have is because I hadn't discovered natural medicine yet!)

 

[chickengrl]

Quote:
Sorry, chickens don't get colds. If you have no plans for selling chicks, hatching eggs, or grown birds, you can keep a closed flock. The birds will either get over it, or die and the ones left will be carriers and may periodically get sick whenever they are stressed with a cold winter, new birds, pretty much anything. You could then try everything in your power to keep a healthy immune system with your closed flock. I am not big on the natural remedies(not knocking them, just don't practice them), but very much believe in good husbandry practices. Lots of good food(believe that free ranging provides the best natural diet), clean water, clean environment, sunshine and exercise. After that, it's up to the bird. So, it depends on what you want to do with your birds, and which way you might want to go with their care. Some folks want to be as natural as possible. It works well for them. We go with good husbandry AND we vaccinate for an illness that we were diagnosed with(we have a closed flock after ILT diagnosis) to keep it out of the flock. It's different strokes kind of thing and you have to figure out what works for you. I hope we have been able to provide you with some helpful information.

ETA: Going with natural remedies to boost the immune system would not be a bad way to go. Antibiotics often will not treat these things well at all since many of them are viral. We did try the Tylan before our diagnosis and it did not work at all. Found out later it was Infectious laryngotracheitis (ILT) and it is a chicken herpes virus, so we saw no effect whatsoever with the Tylan. MG and a couple others will respond but unfortunately you are treating it blindly without a real diagnosis.

 

[chickenjoefan]

hi can you tell me what is GSE?

I had a simliar horror story. New to keeping chickens i chose to hatch my own, but got rather a lot of roos so decided to buy in some olderhens to go with my hatched stock. One of the older ones started to sneeze but seemed well otherwise. I kept them quarrantined for 2 weeks as per advice, checked out internet and forums about sneezing and somehow missed the horror stories.

End result: 2 dead 9 week olds and a fully infected flock. Mycoplasma was my vets diagnosis after a month of waiting for test results.

I have now culled some of the roos for the table - as i can't rehome them but i can't bring myself to get rid of my girls so anything that can help them stay healthier i'd love to know.

The vet prescibed baytril for mine while they were properly sick, they all still sneeze from time to time but otherwise seem healthy.

good luck but please keep them well quarantined. I wish i had. chickens don't sneeze for no reason unfortunately.

They do get colds, but you need to be sure thats what it is. any eye swelling or any gunk/snot gluing up the eyes is a bad sign, i have read that coryza smells really distinctive, i can't say mine smelt in any way but they are still an infected flock now.

i have my fingers crossed for you. Best of luck.

 

[Animalian]

I just find it odd cos the other chook is fine. No discharges or anything. I also remember when my pet cockatiel started sneezing a lot a few years ago the vet said she could have caught it form us if we had a cold. I learned in biology at school that 75% of infectious diseases in humans can also infect domestic animals (which would include hens).

I will keep watching her closely, going to go find some GSE (grapefruit seed extract chickenjoefan!)

 

[chickengrl]

Quote:
Well, I would not normally contradict a veterinarian...but it seems that actually very few diseases cross species. When one does medical folks very nearly panic at the thought of it. Like the avian flu we have worried about for so long. Hmmm, where is an infectious disease specialist when you need one? Your one bird that is not sick may be a carrier, but with a bit tougher immune system and she has been able to fight it off. Some birds just seem better able to fight things off. Good luck with the GSE. Hopefully it will help them out.