Sudden respiratory disease

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Hi All, I’ve been staying off BYC because I’ve just been too upset to talk, but we have a bad situation. We had a guinea nest in the coop with six eggs due to hatch - I checked Sunday and they were internally pipped, so I decided to leave the nesting hens alone. I do a head count every night- Monday night I saw that one purple hen, Queen Anne, was very sick with respiratory disease. It came on very suddenly. I isolated her in a separate building and she looked slightly better the next day. After discussion with our state diagnostic lab, I decided to submit an oropharyngeal swab for influenza and mycoplasma testing. When I held her to get that swab, she fought me and then died, gasping for air. She was submitted for necropsy and testing. So far, influenza and mycoplasma have been negative, Newcastle is pending. In the meantime, we have so many susceptible birds, including chicks, keets, and chickens that carry Marek’s Disease virus, which makes them fragile. We hatched 30 keets with intentions to sell ASAP and don’t have real housing for them.

Meanwhile, for the coop nest, 4 keets hatched and Viceroy has done well with them so far. Unfortunately, I’ve had to keep the guineas locked up due to this mystery illness and the rest of the flock has not been great with the keets. Yesterday we let them out for a few hours since the mycoplasma test had come back negative and I felt sick watching the adults pecking at the keets. I had planned to remove the keets and sell if the keets were not treated well, but I obviously can’t sell them after their disease exposure.

The guineas coop is right next to the chicken coop; I think that there’s no way the chickens aren’t exposed. Meanwhile, one of the broody hens that’s been mothering the keets has started sneezing. It’s all so nightmarish.

 

[R2elk]

I am so sorry that you are going through this. I wish you the best of luck . Hopefully you will soon learn what the cause is and will be able to take proactive measures.

Good luck.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

I am so sorry that you are going through this. I wish you the best of luck . Hopefully you will soon learn what the cause is and will be able to take proactive measures.

Good luck.

Thanks for the encouragement, R2elk. So far everything is negative: not influenza, mycoplasma, or Newcastle’s. Pathologist said the lungs and trachea were normal but kidney was diseased. They are going to look at her sinuses next, but it will be a few days. I’m afraid that I’m going to end up with no definitive diagnosis, so I’ll end up flying blind as to how to handle the possibility of disease transmission.

My DD took over care of the just hatched keets (in the house) while I’m taking care of all of the rest of the birds then immediately showering. First set of keets sold today. Can’t wait to sell the rest as I’m nearly having panic attacks worrying about selling someone a sick keet.

I took a look at the coop hatched keets via the guinea cam, and they are still alive, but the adults keep swiping at them. It’s a good thing they are fast, but I can barely stand to look! One of the two moms has already abandoned the keets and is roosting again. The hen that’s been broody for two weeks is still sitting on eggs and pecks at the keets when she can. Viceroy is still caring for them, but I’m worried that she will abandon them too. I just hope that we have the incuabtor keets sold first so I have a place to keep the broody hatched keets. Viceroy’s mate doesn’t seem very interested in the keets and just wants to hang with another hen and his best guy friend. As with last year, I’m wondering if lack of male involvement makes it more likely that the hens will abandon the keets. My plan had been to sell these keets if moms abandoned them, but now I don’t think I can do that...

 

[My2butterflies]

I’m so sorry you have had so many troubles lately I really hope they can come up with an answer for you so the rest of the birds can be treated accordingly. Such a heartbreaking situation.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

I’m so sorry you have had so many troubles lately I really hope they can come up with an answer for you so the rest of the birds can be treated accordingly. Such a heartbreaking situation.

Thanks! I do feel like I’m banging my head against the wall!!! I’m trying to look on the bright side - at least it’s not avian influenza where all of your birds are depopulated. That’s the disease that I thought of first...

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Just as an update: I’m still just anxiously waiting to see if any other guineas or chickens get sick! Scout Red, who also hangs out a lot with the new keets, had a big sneezing fit last week so I thought that was the beginning of her showing this illness. However, she hasn’t done anything since then and has stopped sneezing. I’m keeping the guineas locked up still so they don’t infect the other poultry.